Transformers Prime: A New Adventure.

Chapter 62: New Friends and Enemies.

(Fortressimus Prime's POV...)

I had gotten ready to find out if the young woman I met just one day after Wheeljack left was in the same area I found her in.

The woman in question, Angelica Lafranchi, was a Native America-Hispanic native of Carson City, Nevada, not too far from Las Vegas and only half of 180 miles from Jasper, if you look at the maps of Nevada from a Transformers Prime perspective.

She'd had a rough childhood; her mother was emotionally neglectful, her stepfather was abusive, her biological father was in critical condition because of her mother being a master manipulator – you know, a little rumor here, a little lie there – and her grandparents are old to the point where even a simple heart attack will cause them to pass on.

I knew that Ratchet wouldn't approve of another human being brought to the Autobot base, but I'd be raining electric fire on every iteration of the countryside of Japan if I let anything happen to Angelica or if I didn't keep my promise.

Besides, in case Ratchet failed to realize it, the causes of trauma for Earth children are almost the exact same as trauma for children on Cybertron: physical abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse, sexual neglect, psychological abuse, psychological neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, sexual trafficking, natural disasters, natural terrorism, technological disasters, technological terrorism, sudden and/or violent losses of relatives and friends, family violence, community violence, school violence, witnessing and/or experiencing domestic violence, commercial sexual exploitation, physical assault, sexual assault, separation from a parent or caregiver – regardless of whether or not that parent is abusive or trying to keep him or her safe from either an abusive parent or an old crush-by-on that wants revenge for being exposed as a liar, a physical and sexual abuser, and so forth, growing up with a parent or guardian who's a drug addict, an alcohol addict, or a chronic abuser of drugs and alcohol, their mothers being treated violently, growing up in a home where the parent or main caregiver is sent to prison, growing up in a home where one parent has been diagnosed with depression, schizophrenia, paranoia, paranoid schizophrenia, autism, or ADHD, crimes being committed in the community, discrimination, being homeless, poverty, house fires, racism, cyberbullying, economic stress, constantly changing living spaces, personal and familial substance use disorders, refugee and war experiences which includes torture, serious accidents and/or life-threatening diseases, and military family-related stresses such as relatives being deployed into service or wartime battle, parental loss, and parental injury to the point of falling comatose.

Ratchet may not have to like it, but I am and I will be bringing Angelica to the base to get her away from her childhood traumas to be battled against when she has had more than enough time to recover from being abused for years and from having to fight for her life and sanity.

Besides that as well, Optimus would've done the same thing even if the child or young adult in question was born blind or made blind by an accident or by physical abuse.

But I swear, if it's the last thing I do, if I ever encounter Angelica's mother and stepfather, I'll be sure to have them stand trial and I'll be sure to convince the judge to sentence them to being executed, current laws against capital punishment be damned.

Besides, while I'm comfortable with killing Decepticons, I'm not comfortable with killing humans willingly or unwillingly, as I was a religious human being growing up in the Quadwal cluster, and thus I hold true to God's Commandment "Thou shalt not murder" and Jesus Himself clarifying further in His own way that it includes enemy forces in war time.

However, that doesn't mean that I won't stoop to make sure that any evil human being – Satanist biker, false priest, crooked minister, magic practitioner, corrupt police officer, pedophile, abusive parent, sexual abuser, conjugal abuser, terrorist, corrupt politician, abusive and/or neglectful teacher, incompetent principal engaging in gambling, gang member, mercenary, discharged soldier turned criminal or terrorist, mass murder, anti-villain, warlord, tyrant, racist killer, homophobe, transphobe, and so forth who either harm innocent people to the extreme or who kill innocent people – would get the death penalty.

Yeah, I may be aware that it is God's right to decide who lives and who dies depending on good deeds and crimes in life, but unfortunately, when it comes to such types of evildoers, I ain't going to rest until they suffer the consequences for their crimes while still obeying specific laws that law-abiding civilians who want to help the people they love would go above and beyond to obey in order to avoid being executed and to avoid spending up to one hundred years in prison.

Anyway, over the course of the past five and a half weeks, I'd prayed all day and all night whenever I could to God to allow me to take Angelica to the Autobot base and get her away from her abusive family.

And wouldn't you know it, but it appeared my prayers were answered, as when I went to the same spot I asked her to meet me in where I picked out that was far from the city and far from prying human eyes, she was there with lots of luggage that took weeks to gather while avoiding suspicions.

As soon as she sees me in the windows of my truck form, Angelica says, "Peter. You came. Just as you promised."

I got out of my vehicle mode in human form and I replied, "Yes. I told you, I always keep my promises, and it's an honorable, justice-driven thing to do to keep promises, no matter how difficult the circumstances, no matter the outcome, no matter who doesn't approve or otherwise, and no matter how hopeless the situation appears to be. I'd never break a promise even if I was going to be burnt alive."

Angelica lost her composure and she cried as she hugged me tight, but I hugged her warmly, as since I'm not human anymore, I could handle the pressure from her bear hug that came from years of exercise and years of fighting for her life.

But then, just to be sure that we were in the clear, I asked, "What happened to your mother and stepfather?"

Angelica looked ashamed as she answered, "They were about to find out about you, and when they found out about me leaving, they pushed me too far and... I killed them while making sure to erase every single shred of evidence."

I was shocked at that, but I couldn't blame her; sometimes you gotta do a little bit of bad to do a whole lot of good in the future on the path for redemption.

But please understand that while I hold true to the virtues of a true human being, religious or otherwise, I also hold true to what Rorschach from Watchmen once said: "There is good, and there is evil, and evil must be punished. Even in the face of Armageddon, I shall never compromise in this."

But even though I firmly believe that evildoers should be punished, I also firmly believe in no killing evildoers in the real world unless they're about to go too far or if they prove once and for all that they don't want to change, even willingly. Or even unless that evildoer could potentially bring about the end of the world. Especially among other reasons to prove it to be absolutely necessary in such a case.

If Optimus were here, if he had asked me what I thought about Angelica killing her mother and stepfather just because she had reached her limit, I would've said, "God saw what happened and He didn't do anything because it wasn't the right time for it. Judgement Day is thousands to millions of human years away from today, and on that day, depending on whether you killed someone accidentally or purposely, and depending on whether or not you regret it, this combined with whether or not you choose to try to redeem yourself years before you died, you'd be among the millions if not billions to be judged harshly according to your actions and words. You see, Optimus, God made humanity the way it is and He doesn't make mistakes because He's all-knowing, all-powerful, omnibenevolent, omnipresent, absolutely immortal, and so forth that makes him the true Supreme Being. But it isn't Roarke who caused Angelica's relatives to become abusive. Fate didn't put her biological father in a critical condition that resulted in an eighteen year coma, and destiny didn't cause Angelica to kill her abusive mother and stepfather. If God saw what happened tonight, He didn't seem to mind for now as He has the correct judgement in store for the end of days. In similar situations that I've seen on this version of Earth as well as the version of Earth I was born from as a human, I knew that God made the world, but it's we humans who make the world as it is. Regardless of the advancements in technology, regardless of the Fall of Man, regardless of whether or not 96% of Earth's human population refuse to believe that God exists, and regardless of whether or not a tiny or big percentage of humanity can be saved at the end of days. It's we humans who shape the world according to everything about us and everything we do. Angelica may have committed a serious sin by killing her mother and stepfather, but there's no telling what kind of horrible things could've happened if she didn't kill them. True, there is a price for doing a good deed and a bad deed, but sometimes, you gotta do a little bit of bad on such a specific level to do a whole shipload of good on the future path to redemption and the path to being a child of God and a Child of Primus."

after we ate at the restaurant, I was getting ready to drive Angelica to the base when we noticed a police car behind me, emitting a Decepticon signal.

I stated in realization before saying, "(Bleep!) Angelica, we're being followed by a police car, and the driver isn't friendly!"

Angelica replies, "S(bleep!) You think the cops were alerted?"

I answered, "I doubt it."

I secretly sent out a coded message to my main platoon to assist me in dealing with Barricade.

But I got the response that it wasn't Barricade; rather, it was the Decepticon Barwark, one of Barricade's lookalike clones.

I managed to get as far as the countryside before Barwark rammed into me, and I forcibly got Angelica out before I transformed to robot mode and fired my stun pistol at him, knocking him out.

Then, for added measure, I made sure to scan his robot and vehicle modes for future projects, removed his tires, and scrambled his commlink so he can't contact the Nemesis.

Angelica looked at me in fear, and I knew I had a lot of explaining to do.

Anyway, I finally returned to the Autobot base later that night, and I drove Angelica to the Autobot base after comforting her, after explaining everything to her, and after assuring her that as long as she redeems herself and prays to God earnestly and genuinely for a sign of forgiveness and for a chance to redeem herself, she'd receive an answer in God's own special ways of talking to human beings that follow His word to the very end.

Ratchet notices us and after Angelica exits my vehicle mode – I explained to her everything on the way back and just before entering the scanners' range – the Autobot medic exclaims in annoyance, "Another human?!"

I transformed to robot mode quickly and I snarled, "Shut your mouth, Ratchet; I'm in a bad mood and I'm trying to help her overcome her childhood traumas, which resulted in the accidental/purposeful murders of her abusive mother and stepfather."

Ratchet's optics widened in shock as he heard what I had to say, and even though there was a small amount of fear in his optics because of the fact that I was ready to kill someone myself if I heard one more word against a human being, he immediately backtracked and admitted he was indeed xenophobic.

Optimus entered the command center and we explained everything to him.

Even though he was shocked that Angelica's childhood traumas combined with her new anger issues caused her to snap and kill her abusive mother and stepfather, I could tell he was trying to keep his emotions in check.

Ratchet then asks, "Now, can you tell me why we detected a Decepticon signal just now?"

I answered, "I had an encounter with Barwark, one of many lookalike clones of the Decepticon police enforcer, Barricade."

Everyone was shocked to hear what I had to say.

At the end of it all, I took Angelica to her new room and I bide her good night as it was late at night and even I was tired.

I went into recharging mode and my dreamland opened its heart to me.

In my personal dreamland, Primus appeared to me and said, "Fortressimus Prime, you have done a good deed in bringing Angelica Lafranchi into your life and into the lives of your fellow Autobots. Be sure to help her heal her scars, physical, emotional, and mental, all the days of her new life as a member of the Iron Legion in the future."

I replied, "I will, Primus."

The End.

(Author's notes: See you all in chapter 63: First Contact.)