Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

Chapter 6

"It's like a self-regenerating molecular armor."

Will glances up at the tech guy in front of him, but he's honestly not all too concerned about understanding what he just said about the mechanical tail that they'd managed to bring back from the desert. All he cares about, is he thinks he sees a definite way to get an advantage against any more of these things. Pointing out one of the punctures in the armor, he says, "Look at the scorch mark where the sabot round hit. Melted right through."

Turning to Epps, he asks, "Aren't sabots hot-loaded for, like… a six thousand degree magnesium burn?" Epps ponders that a second, "Close to it. It melts tank armor." Back to the tail, Will nods, "Right. So this metal skin must react to extreme heat."

He's no sooner said that, then the damn thing comes to life on the table in front of them. "Heads up!" Epps just barely moves out of the way in time to not get impaled the same way Donnelly had been. Glaring at it, he then looks to the tech, "I thought you said that thing was dead, man!"

As soon as it lays back down, Will grabs hold of one end and yells, "Strap it down! Strap it!" His other men and the techs work quickly to harness the thing down onto the table they were examining it on. Standing back, Will runs a hand through his hair, and then can't help letting out an exhilarated breath before saying, "This thing is wicked."

Calming down, he sighs and locks both hands behind his head briefly. Then he moves over to Epps so they can get a strategy going. "Alright. Get on the horn with Northern Command. Tell them that our effective weapon is high-heat sabot rounds. Recommend we load em' on all the gunships. Go."

Bobby moves to follow out his orders, but pauses when he sees Will run a hand through his hair worryingly again. Patting his friend on the back, he asks, "Hey, man. You doing okay?" Will nods, but at the knowing look on Bobby's face, he sighs again, "I just… I really need to talk to her." "Alright. So see if they've got a phone you can use now. We've been debriefed on the plane. Maybe they'll let you call out now." "And if she doesn't answer? It's late where she is right now." "Then leave her a message. Then at least she'll wake up and hear that we're not actually dead. Which, considering we're pretty sure she thinks we are, will be a pretty great thing to wake up to."

Nodding to that idea, Will heads to follow him towards the front of the plane. Epps grabs a phone to talk to Northern Command, and when Will doesn't seem to be making any progress on attaining a phone for himself, Epps ends his conversation and tells the officer waiting nearby, "One more quick call."

He drags Will to stand with him, dials the number, and then hands the phone over while whispering, "Just be quick, man. We can't afford to be court-marshalled for this shit right now."

Nodding, Will listens to the many rings on the phone, before it finally hits voicemail. And he knows it's probably stupid, but even just hearing her voice through that pre-recorded message gives him a sense of peace he's been missing the past couple of days. "Hi, this is Harper. If you're calling to place an order, leave your name, number, and when you'd like it delivered by. And if you're calling to just talk to me, I'm so sorry I missed you. And I will definitely call you back. Love you, bye."

He smiles at the last part, and then sighs as it beeps for him to start. "Harper? Hey… it's Will. Um… William Lennox. You, uh…" Sighing and wincing at this terrible start, he then says, "I know our last conversation didn't exactly end in a great way. But I'm calling you back, as promised. And… we might be a little delayed in getting home. But we are coming home, Harper. I promise. We…" He pauses again, and then says, "Donnelly… he didn't make it this last time. And I'll explain it more when we get back to you. But the rest of us are still here, and we are coming back to you. Okay? So… just know that. Alright?"

And because he still didn't want to declare his individual love for her over some machine, he instead says, "We love you, Harp. And we'll see you soon."

Hanging up, he glances over at Epps who raises an eyebrow before asking, "You still ain't going to tell the girl you love her?" "Not over a machine! God, she's not even there to hear it right now. She's probably sleeping."

Little did they know... that assumption couldn't be farther from the truth.

"Who did you lose?"

Harper sighs. She knows she told Dragonfly that she'd explain it better later. But… talking about it was still like tearing open a wound. It hurt almost as much, if not more, then when it had initially happened.

She was sitting backwards on the seat, laying with her head towards the handlebars. Dragonfly was somehow making the cushiony part of his body extend that far up for right now, so she could be comfortable. And, she realizes ironically, she's sitting in a position that therapists sometimes have their patients sit in, before they start talking.

Taking another breath, she says, "There was a unit that I wrote letters to. It started in high school, over eight years ago. I started with one, and he loved getting them so much, that he actually came to see me in person. I cooked for him, I did stuff for his family while he was away. And… after a while, he told me his other friends in the unit were jealous about his pen pal letters. So, I started writing to all of them. And then they all started coming to see me. And… we were just really good friends."

Fiddling with her fingers, she adds, "No one… well, Epps knew about it. But… I don't think even Sam knows… but… I was in love with one of them." Dragonfly's engine hums in a bit of a softer tone as he says, "I'm so sorry." "It's not your fault. His name was Will. William Lennox. He was a great soldier. Probably one of the best. He was actually Captain of the whole unit."

Smiling, she adds, "And he hated chicken and dumplings, until I made them for him. Then that became all he ever specifically asked for. Oh, and he used to do this thing, where when he was about to have a discussion, and he'd turn the volume of the radio almost all the way down, but not completely off. Oh! It used to drive me crazy! But I loved it, all at the same time. And the way he would smile at me… sometimes, it would make me feel like I was the most precious thing in the room."

She shakes herself, "I mean… I wasn't. Not to him, I don't think. But, he did care about me. They all did. They're… like the family I never got to have." "I thought you had a family." Harper shrugs, "I have Sam. But mom and dad always wanted a boy. Once he arrived, I was kind of always seen as second-rate. But Sam always loved me. And then I met Epps, and then the rest of the unit. And all of a sudden, I wasn't lonely anymore. I had a family."

Harper feels the seat wrap around her more fully, and Dragonfly says, "And that is why you hurt so greatly now that they are gone." Harper doesn't respond to that, but feels the cushions wrap around her even more before Dragonfly adds, "Please don't feel lonely, Harper. I can't ease the ache of your sadness. I cannot replace these men you've lost. Nor can I fill the void of the lost love. But, I can promise you this. I will never leave you, so you will never be lonely. I promise."

A tear leaks down from the corner of her eye, falling past her temple and into her curly red hair. Letting out a shaky breath, she finally says, "Thanks, Fly." "Fly?" "Yeah. It's a nickname. Is that alright?" A pause, and then he says happily, "Yes. I like it." "Awesome." "So, tell me more about this, William Lennox."

Harper laughed, and went into a little more detail about the love of her life. Though it was still sad that he was gone, it was nice to talk about him, and to be able to tell someone else about how great he was. She went on for another ten minutes.

And then the power on the entire street went out. Sighing, she asks, "What is going on?" The cushions around her shift up and down, and Harper grins before asking, "Did you just shrug?" "Yes." Laughing, she hops up so she can flip around in the seat, "Just get me there, please. Sam probably lost his bag. Which is probably just in the kitchen rather than in his room." "Copy."

As he drops her off at the front, Harper lets out a whistle at the state the yard is in. Optimus, from his position of 'hiding', looks down at her when she hisses, "You couldn't give him an actual five minutes." "Time is…" "Time is short! Yeah, I got that. But you do realize that while you've been distracting him, you've wasted more time, then if you would've just left him alone to find the damn glasses on his own in the first place!" Shaking her head, she adds, "And I thought I was impatient. Geez."

Making her way into the kitchen, she finds the bag and has it on the table just as everyone else is making their way downstairs from Sam's room. Upon seeing she has it, Sam sighs, "Thank God." She holds up the glasses for him to see, and then says, "Come on."

But Ron says, "Now, wait a minute. He just got here. And we need to discuss the fact that he had a girl in his room." "Would you prefer that he had a guy in his room?" Both parents pause at that, not really having a response. Harper rolls her eyes, and asks, "Sam?"

As he makes to follow her, Judy then demands of Harper, "So that's it? You haven't even come into this house at the same time that we've been here in almost five years, and you aren't even going to say hi?" Rolling her eyes again, Harper turns to them and says, "Hi. Bye." "Harper Marie!"

But before Harper can continue out the door, Sam jerks at his hair and shouts, "Enough! Alright?! What exactly do you expect from her?!" Judy blinks, "Well… I mean… something. We raised her, after all." "No, mom. You half raised her. Then I showed up, and you put everything into me. Harper could've flunked out of school, for all you guys cared. I know, I watched it growing up. She aced all her classes and ended up with a 4.3 GPA, and you still just glanced at her papers and went, 'Oh, good job honey, where's Sam?'"

Ron sighs, "Look, it's not that we weren't… proud. We just… she wants to cook for a living. I mean… who…" "Load of people, dad! Literally hundreds of people! And Harper's one of the best!"

Harper grips his arm in her hand, "Sam, it's alright. We need…" "No, it's not alright!" Back to his parents, he exclaims, "Do you even know why I'm not a rebelling teenager?! Huh?! Because let me tell you! You guys, make me want to break out of my room, almost every night! But I don't rebel. Because I have a safe place to go that doesn't require me to break any rules. And that's Harper's house! She's the only reason I'm actually sane!"

Judy puts a hand to her chest, still a little thrown by this outburst. But Ron says, "Son… I'm sorry, alright. But… still... a chef? I mean, she barely had the money she needed for her new bike. How well can she be…" "Dad! She had four-thousand saved for the bike! Specifically! Because everything else she has, is being saved up for the shop she intends to buy and open!"

Back to Harper, he asks, "Just another year, right?" Harper shrugs, "I mean… yeah. But Sam…" But this time its Judy who speaks, asking, "Really? Your… your own shop? You can…" Harper sighs before saying in annoyance, "Yes, I can afford it." "But… honey, why didn't you…" Sam throws up his hands, "Why would she tell you?! You were never proud of her before! Why is she supposed to expect differently now?!"

"Sam!" He jerks his attention back to Harper, who says, "We really have to go. Now." Nodding, he's about to head out with her, leaving his bewildered parents in the living room. But just as they're about to open the door, the bell rings.

And rings. And continues to ring. Harper actually jumps back and to the side as the mail flap flies open, revealing a man's peering eyes as he looks into the room to see who's coming. Pushing Sam towards the kitchen, she says, "And now we really need to go. Worse than before." "Why?" "I don't know! But having a weirdo at the door, peeking through the mail slot, can't be a good thing."

Ron glances at the three of them before moving to the door himself. Opening it to the man in the suit, he's about to ask who it is, when the man beats him to it and asks, "Ronald Wickity?" "It's Witwicky. Who are you?" "We're the government. Sector Seven." He flashes a badge as proof, but Ron still says, "Never heard of it." "Never will."

Stowing his badge away, he proceeds, "Your son's the great-grandson of Captain Archibald Wickity, is he not?" "It's Witwicky." But the man ignores the continued correction of the name he keeps mispronouncing, and asks, "May I enter the premises, sir?"

Before Ron can decide whether to refuse or not, Judy exclaims, "Ron, there's guys all over the front yard."

Whether invited in or not, he and several other men in suits make their way through the door as Ron asks, "What the heck is going on here?" "Your son filed a stolen car report last night. We think it's involved in a national security matter." "National security?"

While Judy complains about the rose bushes being torn apart, Harper tries to guide Sam and Harper out the back doors. But these men are, literally, crawling all over the property. "Shit!" As they hurry back into the house, Harper hoping to aim for the stairs, the flashlights finally land on them. The main guy, tossing a bat he'd found to one of his other men, smiles and asks, "Hey, son! Your name Sam?"

Sam glances at Harper, but with really no chance in denying it successfully, he says, "Uh… yeah." "Well, I'm gonna need you to come with us."

It was a rare moment in which Harper is thankful for the overprotectiveness their parents have for Sam. This Sector Seven man had not even managed to take one step, before Ron and Judy were both standing protectively in front of Sam. Ron declares, "Whoa, way out of line."

It doesn't do much, but Harper is still glad Ron and Judy are the front line now. But the man still approaches, "Sir, I am asking politely. Back off." "You're not taking my son." "Really? You gonna try and get rough with us?"

Before Ron can answer, both he and Judy jump in surprise when Harper says through her teeth, "Do not tempt me." The man tilts his head at her, but then looks to Ron again when he declares he's going to call the cops about all of this. But the man just comes back with, "Yeah, well, there's something fishy about you, your son, that red-head, your little taco-bell dog, and this whole operation you got going on here."

As Ron and the man go back to their verbal argument, Sam tugs at Harper's elbow and asks, "Any ideas?" "Our best bet, at this moment, is to run upstairs, don't think twice, and jump from my old room, onto the balcony of the house next door." When Sam looks at her like she's lost it, she shrugs, "I've done it before. Worst case scenario, we land in the pool. And since we can all swim, I'll take that bet."

But before she can start inching them that way, she hears one of the men tell the head guy, "I think… direct contact." And that pulls the man's attention directly back to them, so no chance of slipping away at all. "Son? Step forward please."

And Sam would have… he really would've. Just to speed things along, and maybe try to go through with Harper's plan. But before he could move an inch, Harper was in front of him. Glaring at this government agent, from an organization that she'd never heard of in her life, she states slowly, "Over. My. Dead. Body."

But as it turns out, he didn't need Sam. The man had the machine on already, and as the wand swept over her body, it lit up like a Christmas tree. Eyes widening, the man reads his monitor and says, "Fourteen rads?" He ponders it a moment more, and then declares with glee, "Bingo! Tag em' and bag em'!"

Harper's initial instinct was the fight back. Getting herself out of this situation would not the problem. The stairs weren't that far away, and there were only two men with reaching distance of her. Take them out with a few swift kicks, and she could get away on her own in a split second.

But with Sam and Mikaela with her… she needed more strategy to this than that. And at this moment, she wasn't going to be able to free herself, and them, and then get them all out. If the army unit was in here, then maybe. But that was because every man would've already known what to do, who to take out, and where to go to make the quickest escape in this situation. But in this particular party, Harper was the only one who was attempting to calculate all of that, so it would not work.

So for the moment, after giving a reassuring glance to her brother, she allows herself to be cuffed, and then dragged out towards the black SUVs these men are driving.

As two of the cars break away in a different direction, escorting their parents to some unknown place, the leader that is with them in this particular car says, "So… LadiesMan217. That is your ebay username, is it not?" Mikaela gives Sam a funny look, but Sam just says, "I mean… yeah, but it was a typo, and I ran with it." The man looks skeptical, until Harper says, "It's true. He got really distracted while he was making it."

The man just glances between all three of them, and then holds up Sam's phone, "So… LadiesMan. What do you make of this?" And as he plays the recorded message that Sam had made, talking about how his car had transformed and turned into a robot, Sam flounders for a moment. Grinning, the man asks, "That sound like you?"

Mikaela, glancing at Harper, says, "Yeah, that sounds like LadiesMan." And Harper would've liked to deny it. But there wasn't any solid way to do that without making it sound like they were obviously lying.

Snapping the phone closed, the man explains, "Last night at the station, you told the officer that your car transformed." Casting his eyes between all three, he says, "Enlighten me." Harper glares at him, but then turns to Sam as he scrambles about, saying, "Well, here's what I said, okay? Because… this is a total misunderstanding. Because what I said, was that my car had been stolen." "Really?" "Yes! From me, from my home. But it's fine now, because it's back! It came back!"

Mikaela and Harper both give him a look, and then Mikaela adds, "Not by itself, obviously." Sam nods, "Well, no!" "Right. Because cars don't do that. Because that would be crazy." She laughs, prompting everyone to laugh with her. But Harper isn't falling for it, not for a second.

The man cuts his laugh short, right on cue with Harper's thinking, and asks instantly, "So what do you kids know about aliens, huh?" Tilting her head, Harper asks, "You mean like that Martian off Looney Tunes?" Sam nods, rolling with it, and asks, "Or E.T.? Ha! No." Mikaela nods, "Yeah, it's an urban legend."

Glaring at them now, the man pulls out his badge and says, "You see this? This is an 'I can do whatever I want and get away with it' badge. And I'm gonna lock you up, forever!" And Sam actually looks terrified for all of a second. But then Mikaela says, "Oh, God. You know what, don't listen to him. He's just pissy because he's gotta get back to guarding the mall."

And then she grins when Harper snaps her fingers from behind her back and says, "That's where I saw that badge! It was in one of the prank toy shops! God, thank you! That was gonna bug me all night." Mikaela nods her welcome, but then they both turn back to the man as he speaks. "You, in the training bra." He points to Mikaela, and then looks to Harper. "And you, with the curly hair from hell. Do not test me."

Back to Mikaela, he adds, "And you, especially, with your daddy's parole coming up." Mikaela leans back in shock, while Sam shouts, "What? Parole?" He would've gone on, but Harper elbowed him and hissed, "Cool it." Mikaela looks at her imploringly, "It's nothing."

But the man in the suit declares, "Oh, grand theft auto, that ain't nothing?" And then he goes back to glaring when Harper shrugs, "It's a video game. I'm not very good, but you should give it a try. You look like you'd be great at it." Mikaela then looks to Sam and explains, "You know those cars my dad used to teach me to fix? Well… they… weren't always his."

Harper waits for their discussion going on across from her to finish, glaring at the man in the suit all the way. And he must've seen, at least for a moment, the very real threat in her eyes, because he paused long enough for Mikaela and Sam to actually talk for a few minutes. But then he snapped back into his role and hissed out, "She's got her own juvie record to prove it! She's a criminal! Criminals are hot."

Harper could've let it go at that, she really could've. But then he went on to say, "Oh, it'd be a real shame if he had to rot in jail for the rest of his life. It's time to…"

The machine that apparently picked up on alien radiation… or whatever it was it picked up on, was starting to go haywire. So Harper knew it was only a matter of seconds before they were going to be busted out of this. Which meant she had just enough time for…

She slammed her head forward. Hard. And then she couldn't help smirking when she heard the crunch of the man's nose beneath her skull. She hit him so hard, that he flew forward towards the dash of the car. And before he can comment or do anything, even before his driver can do anything, a giant mechanical foot stomps down in front of the vehicle.

As everyone then comes to a screeching halt, two giant hands reach down and break inside to grip the roof of the car they're in. Sam freaks for a second, but then follows Harper's lead, who puts her feet against the seat in front of her, and pushes back hard so she stays in place as much as possible.

When the roof comes off, they hit the ground with a thud, but with much less of a shake then they would've if they hadn't been so braced. And then the blindingly bright light from above them cuts off, and everyone looks up at the autobot standing before them.

Harper grins while Sam says, "Oh, you A-holes are in trouble now. Gentlemen, I want to introduce you to our friend. Optimus Prime." The leader of the autobots then explains, "Taking the children, was a bad move."

Every gun in the area turns to aim towards his huge metal form, and Harper scoffs, "Okay, yeah, because that's actually going to do anything to him." Optimus seems to grin at her again, and then says, "Autobots, relieve them of their weapons." The resounding thuds that follow show that the others are all landing behind them. Jazz uses some sort of magnetized thing from his hand that pulls all of the weapons out of the hands of the Sector Seven agents.

As Optimus bends down to face the two men in the car with them, the leader lets out a slightly surprised, if not still pained from his broken nose, "Hi." Optimus narrows his eyes, "You don't seem afraid. Are you not surprised to see us?"

Still thrown, the man does manage to say, "Look… there are S-Seven protocols, okay? I'm not authorized to communicate with you, except to tell you that I… can't communicate with you." Glaring, Optimus says, "Get out of the car." "Alright. Me? You want…" "Now!" "Alright, alright. Hey, getting out. We're getting out."

As everyone begins moving, Mikaela comes up behind Harper and immediately begins unlocking the cuffs. Smirking, Harper says to a wide-eyed Sam, "I say again. She's a keeper." Mikaela grins a bit at that, but then slumps and says, "You guys… weren't supposed to hear all that. I… I only have a record, because I wouldn't turn my dad in. I… I just…"

Sam briefly looks like he doesn't know what to do, even though his hands are now uncuffed as well. Harper rolls her eyes, nudges him, and then whispers, "This is the part where you comfort her, before she begins to think that you think badly of her. Hug her, you big dummy."

While he does that, Harper marches over to the man in charge and demands, "What is Sector Seven?" Upon not getting a response, she smirks, "I already broke your nose. Would you like to see what else I can break?" "Look here, little miss! I'm the one who asks questions around here. Not you!"

Coming up behind her, Mikaela asks, "How'd you know about the aliens?" And then Sam adds, "Where'd you take my parents?" Glaring at all of them, the man says, "I am not at liberty to discuss it." Harper raises an eyebrow, "No?"

Yanking at his suit pocket, she ignores his threat on the fact that she was clearly committing a federal offense. She was past caring at this point. Taking his badge out, she holds it up and repeats, "Do whatever you want and get away with it badge. Right?" The man just glares harder, "Yeah. Brave now all of a sudden, with your big alien friends standing over there."

As Harper flips through the wallet, Sam asks, "Where is Sector Seven?" "Wouldn't you like to know?" And as Harper continues flipping through the contents of the wallet, only finding the name Simmons to go by, she then grins when she hears liquid suddenly being poured on the man's head, and Optimus says, "Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man. Dragonfly, put the gun away. Tend to your charge."

As Mikaela and Sam move to handle handcuffing and trapping the rest, Dragonfly does pull Harper aside to check her out. Raising an eyebrow at his inquisitive stare, she asks, "What?" "You do not appear hurt, but there is blood on the top of your hair?" She wipes at that, "Yeah, well, that would be from when I broke Simmons' nose." Dragonfly shakes his head, and then Harper asks, "Seriously, what is it? You aren't worried about Sam or Mikaela?" "We are. But you have already proven that you are more prone to injury then they are. So, we are more concerned with you." "I'm fine."

He just reaches out to touch her chest again, and then says gently, "You are brave, little one." "So I'm told." She grins up at him, and then glances back when Sam says, "Alright. We're ready to go."

And, of course, that is also when all hell breaks loose. Again!