FBI Interrogation Room
Maggie and Glen were both sat in a nondescript interrogation room. The former was frustrated that she was here and not addressing the Secretary of Defense on her findings. Glen, on the other hand, was helping himself to the platter of donuts that was placed in the middle of the table.
"Okay, Maggie, look," Glen started once he finished devouring the plate of donuts. "Lemme break it down to you how it's gonna happen. They're gonna come through that door and play good cop bad cop. Don't fall for that, alright? That's why I ate their food. See, they put the plate of donuts out here to test your guilt. If you don't touch it, you're guilty!" He then emphasized his point by clattering the plate in front of him. "I ate the whole plate. The whole plate! Okay? It's me and you. They walk through that door and you don't say nothin'."
Maggie was not at all convinced with Glen's pep talk, but decided to roll with it. Right as he finished his sentence, the door opened, and 2 agents walked in. One was wearing a suit, while the other was in a field uniform, clearly the suit was the interrogator, and the other was security. The security agent slid the empty plate of donuts away while Glen smiled and nodded. Maggie was visibly nervous, but remained silent. The suit brought forth a folder, possibly a dossier of sorts and dropped it on the table.
"SHE DID IT! SHE DID IT! SHE'S THE ONE YOU WANT!" Glen erupted as he pointed a finger at a shocked and bewildered Maggie. "Alright I was just sittin' at home watching cartoons, playing video games with my cousin, and she came in!"
"Glen, you freak-!"
"Hey, I am NOT going to jail for you or anybody else!" Glen cut off. "I've done nothing bad my entire life!" He then got back up to address the security officer. "Hey man, I'm still a virgin!" Only for the security officer to sit him back down. "O-Okay so what?! I-I've download a couple thousand songs off the internet?! Who hasn't?! Who hasn't?!"
"Glen, just shut up!" Maggie demanded, having enough of her colleague's sudden outburst.
"NO, YOU SHUT UP!" Glen snapped back. "DON'T TALK TO ME! DON'T TALK TO ME, CRIMINAL!" The realization soon settled in on him and he placed his head down on the desk. "Oh, sugar rush…"
"Okay, this is not his fault!" Maggie began to explain. "But just listen to me! Whoever hacked into your military system downloaded a file, alright? It was something about, someone named Witwicky, and, some government group named Sector 7! You have to let talk to defense secretary Keller before you go to war with the wrong country!"
Witwicky Residence
"Yeah, I heard it too."
Carly was currently on the phone with one of her neighbors after a sudden meteor shower rained down around town. Despite her best efforts, she could not get a hold of Daniel, but hoped he was smart enough to not approach an asteroid for a number of safety reasons.
"One of them landed in the hospital parking lot?!" … "Okay at least no one was hurt." … "No I'm not gonna go near them, and if I had to be near them, I'd bring my Geiger counter." … "June, of course I have a Geiger counter. And who are you to judge? You've got a portable defibrillator in your personal first aid kit!"
DING DONG!
"I'll call you back," Carly said as she hung up the phone and approached the front door. She hoped it was Daniel finally coming back after disappearing for the day, but hoped that it was not because law officials escorted him back. Once she looked through the peep hole, she inwardly groaned as not only was it not Daniel, but it was the 2 of the last people on this planet that she did not want dropping by unannounced. Steeling herself, she forced on a friendly face and opened the dreaded door.
"Hi there!~" A skinny older woman with curly hair greeted with the biggest smile on her face next to a more round man with a prominent bald spot who seemed less enthused.
"Judy! Ron! What an unexpected surprise!" Carly forced out. Unexpected was definitely a valid way of putting it. She was not prepared to deal with her clueless airhead of a sister, and her penny-pinching control freak of a husband.
"Didn't know this place got meteor showers," Ron commented. He was unhappy enough as it was being out in the middle of the desert. "So, where's Spike? I thought he was on leave."
"He was pulled from leave," Carly answered. "Based on what I saw on the news, it's reason enough."
"See, this is why I told you to never fall for a military man, Carly!" Judy scolded in a tone emphasizing her point. "They're never around when it counts and you've had to raise poor Daniel all by yourself!"
"Speaking of whom, where is he?" Ron questioned. "It's late enough as it is, and honestly it wouldn't surprise me if he got into trouble."
"He should be back any minute now," Carly strained out. Oh how she wanted to smack both of them upside the head right now, but she was better than that. "Lemme get some refreshments."
Carly ushered her sister and brother-in-law into the house and led them to the living room. Once she was in the kitchen, she hissed out a very frustrated sigh and dragged her face through her hands from the sudden mountain of stress that had shown up at her door. Now she was desperately hoping for Daniel to show up very soon to help her deal with this mess. Little did she know that he would be bringing a whole host of issues along with him.
A long, yet strange, convoy drove down the suburban residential district of Jasper Nevada with a large Kenworth W900 at the front. The streets were narrow, but the semi truck navigated them with grace and ease, as did the 8 other vehicles close behind. When the convoy reached the Witwicky residence, Optimus and Ironhide rolled to a stop outside, while Hot Rod, Sideswipe, and Chromia pulled into the car port. Bulkhead, Ratchet, Jazz, and Bumblebee continued onward and patrolled the neighborhood in the event an unwanted Decepticon guest made their presence known. Hot Rod's doors opened to let out Daniel and Mikaela as the former raced towards the house.
"Keep an eye on 'em, alright?" Daniel requested, to which Mikaela nodded. "I should be about 10 minutes, tops."
Daniel proceeded to race to the back entrance of the house. Unfortunately, his mother was on the other side of the glass door with an unwelcoming look on her face.
"Where the Hell have you been?" Carly hissed as she opened the door.
"It's a long story, Mom," Daniel explained. "I had a very long day."
"Yeah, well, it's gonna get longer," Carly snapped.
"I missed curfew, didn't I?" Daniel guessed, dreading having to juggle being grounded and saving the world at the same time.
"Worse," Carly corrected, her exasperation beginning to show. "Your Aunt Judy and Uncle Ron decided to drop by unannounced."
"...Oh no!" Daniel exclaimed, recognizing how detrimental this could be.
"Oh no is right!"
"No, not that Oh no!" Daniel corrected, before groaning. "I mean, yes, exactly that Oh no, but with more Oh no stacked on top of the usual Oh no!"
Carly could not help but sigh at her son's rambling. "Could we stop saying Oh no and explain what's going on?" She demanded. She then saw Hot Rod slowly stride into the back yard as Sideswipe and Chromia followed him. Ironhide and Optimus came around the other side of the house, the former just taking in his surroundings while the latter, despite his stoic expression, seemed impatient. Realizing hot Rod had been caught, he gave a nervous chuckle along with a casual wave.
"This is a bad time, isn't it?" Hot Rod deduced as he saw Daniel palm his face and Carly look upon the Lambo Bot with wide eyes. Mikaela raced into the back yard with an exasperated look on her face.
"Okay look, I know you wanted me to keep an eye on them, but they're in a bit of a hurry," Mikaela explained. She then saw Carly's stunned expression and rolled her head back in exasperation. "And it's gotten more complicated…"
"Don't worry, I got this," Ironhide waved off as he cleared his throat - or the closest facsimile to a throat Cybertronians possess - and knelt down to greet Carly from a short distance. "Bah Weep Graaagnah Wheep Ni Ni Bong." All 3 humans present looked at Ironhide with bewildered expressions, unable to discern what the Hell he had just said. Even a few of the Autobots present looked at him weird. "What? It's the universal greeting!"
"If I've said it once, I've said it a million times," Chromia sighed as she pinched the part of her face place where a nose would be. "That universal greeting doesn't actually work."
"Okay, can we address the more important issues for a second? Please?!" Daniel hissed out before returning his attention to his mother, who was still stupefied from what she had witnessed. Daniel could not help but wave a hand in front of her face to check to see if she was home. "Hey, uh, are you in there?"
"Huh? What?" Carly sputtered, finally broken from her stupor. She then turned to Daniel and had to ask: "Y-You're seeing what I'm seeing right now too, right?"
"Yep, I also got confirmation thanks to Mikaela over there," Daniel answered. "And before I forget, Mikaela, this is my mom, Carly. Mom, Mikaela."
"Nice to meet you," Carly shook Mikaela's hand before returning her attention to the metal titans in her backyard. "Uh, Daniel? Explanation please? Also kinda wish Spike was here just so I could gauge his reaction to all this."
"Okay, I'll summarize this as quick as possible," Daniel sighed. "Alien civil war landed in our back yard. The folks behind me are the good guys, especially since they saved mine and Mikaela's skins earlier today. As for why they're here, they wanna borrow Grandpa Archibald's glasses. It's got a map to this cube-looking device, and if the bad guys get it, we're screwed." He then looked back up to Hot Rod. "Did I leave anything out?"
"Beyond introductions, I think you got everything," Hot Rod nodded.
"Oooookay," Carly sighed, quickly massaging her face. "Yeah, We can't let Judy and Ron know a lick of this." 'Although it might be refreshing having those two faint from the sight of these robots…' She added mentally to herself, but knew there was too great of a risk for them not to pass out from the revelation and inevitably blab about it. "Good thing your father taught us everything we need to know about Confidential."
"Believe me, I know what'll happen if word gets-"
Daniel's sentence was interrupted by the yapping of a little dog. A black and brown Dachshund dog was standing next to Ironhide's foot and lifted his hind leg before letting nature take its course.
"Damnit, Joe! He is not a fire hydrant!" Daniel cursed.
"Eugh! What in Primus's Name?!" Ironhide exclaimed as he shook the fluid off his foot, nearly kicking the weiner dog away. He then deployed his forearm cannons and pointed them at the dog in question. "Looks like you've got rodents here. Mind if I take 'em out?"
"Whoa whoa whoa! Easy there!" Daniel rushed over, picking up the dog and raising a hand defensively. "This is my neighbor's pet dog! His name's Joe!"
"Yeah? Well 'Joe' here just leaked lubricant all over my foot!" Ironhide snapped back.
"And I'm gonna send him back home. Bad Joe! Bad!" Daniel scolded the weiner dog.
"Bad Joe," Ironhide echoed as he holstered his cannons and Daniel hurried the dog through the hole in the fence that he must have dug under.
"Sorry about that. He shows up and pisses where he pleases. It's a male dominance thing," Daniel explained.
"Hrm. Foot's gonna rust," Ironhide grumbled.
"Okay, I said 10 minutes tops, and you guys made me waste a good amount of that dealing with this!" Daniel scolded the Autobots. "PLEASE keep quiet and go hide!"
"Gotcha," Sideswipe acknowledged with a thumbs up. He then proceeded to crawl into the backyard garage with a bit of a struggle. "Gah, might as well be crawling through duct work."
"Have you considered transforming before going in there?" Hot Rod suggested before reverting to his vehicle mode and turning off his lights.
"...I knew that," Sideswipe brushed it off before doing the same. All the while Carly was left even more speechless than before.
"Uh, Daniel?" Carly spoke up, seeing the similarities between the old beat up Countach Daniel had bought versus the Gallardo that just shifted forms before her. "Is that Lambo the same one you bought?"
"Yep," Daniel answered flatly. "I'll explain later, but we gotta find those glasses."
"Alright, I'll check downstairs and keep Judy and Ron occupied, you check upstairs," Carly decided, to which Daniel nodded.
The two walked inside and Carly broke off to deal with her unwanted guests, while Daniel tried to sneak his way upstairs without being spotted. Luck was not on his side this evening as his aunt Judy spotted him.
"Daniel!" Judy greeted her nephew, much to his dismay. "Where've you been? You almost missed your mother's curfew."
"I've had a long day," Daniel sighed. He was not wrong. "As much as I'd love to catch up, I'm gonna turn in."
"Oh relax," Ron dismissed as he approached. "It's the weekend. Besides-Whoa. The Hell happened to you? You look like… Like a construction site threw up on you."
"Once again, it was a long day," Daniel reiterated. "I'm gonna go shower, then head to bed."
Daniel then made his way upstairs, leaving the extended family members behind. "That kid's too anti-social," Ron commented as he headed back to the living room.
"I'm telling you, his father should be around more!" Judy responded.
Upstairs, Daniel was rummaging through every shelf and surface in his room to find his ancestor's glasses. It was until a metallic rumble followed by a pneumatic hiss pulled his attention to his window, where he saw Mikaela being elevated in Optimus Prime's palm.
"Time is short," Optimus stated as he gently released Mikaela through the window.
"They really want those glasses," Mikaela stated. "Figured maybe I could help search."
"Okay," Daniel nodded, brushing aside the fact that his crush was now in his room, considering bigger things were afoot. "Good call."
"Please, hurry," Optimus pleaded before retreating away from the window.
Daniel proceeded to rummage through everything on the surface level, throwing several DVD cases into the air to no avail. "Okay, problem," Daniel declared. "They're not here. The glasses were in the bag, the bag was in the backpack, and now the backpack isn't here."
"Okay, they're gonna be pissed," Mikaela nodded, realizing the situation. "So, what should we do?"
"Okay, I'm gonna sweep this half of the room, you sweep the other half," Daniel declared, making hand gestures to make a rough approximation of where to search. Mikaela proceeded with her search, until she came across a box. When she opened it, she immediately closed it and moved it aside, her face now flushed as she returned to her search and put aside what she had just discovered. After sweeping her section, she found no trace of the artifact and let loose an exasperated sigh, until another metallic rumble caught her attention. She looked to the window, and saw what made the noise.
"Uh, Sam? He's back," Mikaela stated as she pointed to the window where Optimus was at.
"Oh boy…" Daniel sighed as he made his way towards the window. He then looked down and saw Optimus's feet crushing the flower beds in the yard. "Oh come on! Not the flower beds!"
"Oops. My apologies," Optimus apologized before removing his feet from the now ruined flower beds.
"Okay, I searched my room, the glasses aren't here," Daniel explained. "But look, if my aunt and uncle come out here and see you, they'll freak out. I don't know if you've been to other planets, but I can't begin to list the issues that'll come if they see you."
"I understand, Daniel, but we must have the glasses," Optimus implored.
"I know you need them, but they're not in my room," Daniel explained. "I'm gonna check elsewhere in the house, but please take a step back for a moment, alright?"
"Very well," Optimus nodded. "Autobots, Fall back."
"What's the matter with you people? Can't you be quiet? He wants us to be quiet!" Chromia hissed as the Autobots proceeded to vacate the backyard of the Witwicky residence. Sideswipe failed to look where he was going and walked face first into a bundle of power lines that sparked and threw him back.
The tremor from Sideswipe's collapse rocked the house, startling everyone in the living room. Carly hazarded a guess as to what that was, while Judy quickly tried to balance herself. Ron, meanwhile…
"EARTHQUAKE!" Ron yelled as He quickly rushed to the dining room and hid under the table "MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE! EARTHQUAKE! JUDY! CARLY! DUCK IN COVER, NOW!"
"How'd you get over there so fast?" Judy asked incredulously.
"That's actually a good question," Carly nodded in agreement.
"Wow, that was tingly!" Sideswipe declared before groaning and leaning back. "You should try that!"
"Yeah, that looks fun," Ironhide dismissed with an err of sarcasm as the power poles continued to spark and the power for the neighborhood cut off.
"Well, that's just great," Judy rolled her eyes as darkness took over the house.
"Relax," Carly dismissed as she pulled out a box from under the couch and turned on a few flashlights. "I'm pretty sure this blackout won't be for too long." 'I'm gonna run one of those robots through a car compactor when this is all over.' She added to herself mentally, deducing the source of the unexpected power outage.
"Well, probably best to get a flashlight to Daniel, so that he doesn't trip over anything," Ron suggested. Carly nodded and grabbed a flashlight, while Judy decided to grab a baseball bat.
"Judy? Why do you have that bat?" Carly asked incredulously.
"Everyone knows that power outages are when break-ins happen the most!" Judy answered.
"And you flailing about with a bat is gonna scare them off?" Ron asked in a deadpan tone.
"Just try and keep the swinging to a bare minimum," Carly urged as they walked up the stairs and approached Daniel's door. Out from under the door was a bright light that seemed to move.
"What the Hell is that?" Ron questioned aloud at the bright light shining from under the door.
"I don't know," Judy answered, wondering what was going on.
"Sideswipe, dim your lights," Optimus ordered as Daniel approached the window once more.
"What's with the bright lights?!" Daniel hissed. "Shut 'em off, please!"
"I'm trying, but those power cables I hit got my currents saturated," Sideswipe explained as he then proceeded to try and cover his vehicle mode headlights with his hands. "Wow, this looks more awkward than it needs to be."
"Just-"
"Daniel!"
Daniel immediately groaned as he heard his uncle Ron knocking at the door.
"You know the rules! No locked doors!" Ron called from behind the door.
"This isn't your house, Ron!" Carly snapped back, also behind the door.
"He's gonna start counting!" Judy warned in a pleading tone.
"Okay, you guys, Hide!" Daniel demanded the Autobots. "Same with you, Mikaela, please!"
"Five!" Ron called out before Daniel finally reached the door and opened it.
"What's up?" Daniel asked nonchalantly before noticing Judy had a bat in hand. "What's with the bat?"
"Who were you talking to?" Ron asked.
"I'm talking to you," Daniel deflected.
"We heard voices and noises, and wondered if you were alright," Judy said as she finally put the bat aside.
"Doesn't matter what we heard. What was that light?" Ron asked as he forced his way into Daniel's room.
"Whoa whoa whoa! I didn't invite you in!" Daniel defended, trying to stop his uncle from barging in. "I haven't made my room presentable-"
"Oh goodness gracious, why are you getting so defensive?" Judy asked, exasperated at the situation. "Were you-"
"Judy don't you dare finish that sentence!" Carly cut off in order to save her son further embarrassment. Daniel immediately caught on to what she was about to ask and looked at her with disgust.
"Wha-No! What made you think that?!" Daniel immediately defended.
"Okay, you don't have to call it that if it makes you uncomfortable," Judy tried to correct.
"Alright! I've had enough!" Carly finally snapped. "Both of you, get out of my house!"
"Whoa! Where's this coming from?" Ron asked, surprised by the sudden outburst.
"Where's this coming from?! I've been having a stressful day with work and then you two decide to drop in completely unannounced!" Carly shouted. "The least you could've done is call ahead to give me prep time, but NOOOO! That's too much to ask!"
"Alright, alright, we'll go," Judy relented as she raised her hands defensively.
"Fair enough," Ron agreed. "She also probably doesn't want us finding her meth lab."
Bad call, Ron.
"OUT!" Carly all but screamed, ushering the two out of the house quickly. Once Judy and Ron were finally gone, Carly let loose a long sigh of relief. "That was probably more cathartic than it had any right being."
"Saves me the trouble of having to take them out," Ironhide commented from outside the house as he powered down his cannons.
"Ironhide, you know we don't harm humans," Hot Rod scolded. "What's gotten into you?!"
"Actually, what has gotten into me?" Ironhide realized before sighing. "I've probably spent too much time with Warpath. That damn trigger-happy kid was probably rubbing off on me."
"At least his volume setting hasn't rubbed off on you," Sideswipe commented, earning a snicker from Ironhide.
"Alright, back to the matter at hand," Daniel stated as he tried to refocus, only for the power to come back online. "Well, that's another plus for this evening. Anyways, Mom, do you know where my backpack is?"
"It should be on the counter near the dining room. Why?" Carly answered.
"I gotta check that next!" Daniel said as he immediately rushed downstairs to find the backpack. True to her words, the backpack was right where Carly said it was. Opening it up, he found the familiar bag containing his great great grandfather's artifacts, including a glasses case, complete with glasses.
Outside of the house, Optimus and the others proceeded to transform back into vehicle mode and await the package out front.
"-Optimus, do you read me?-" Ratchet chimed in through the short-range communications link.
"Loud and clear, old friend," Optimus responded. "What's the situation."
"-A convoy of human vehicles is approaching your position,-" Ratchet explained. "-They don't have any law enforcement or military markings, but their lights are blinking blue and red.-"
"Any Energon signatures from them?" Optimus inquired as his dispatchment drove off.
-"Negative,-" Ratchet answered. "-Whoever they are, they are human, but their intentions are unknown.-"
Hot Rod heard all of this. Despite not being able to show it on his faceplates given his current mode, he was worried.
"Optimus, I would advise caution with this group of humans," Hot Rod warned. "If my hunch is correct, this could spell a bit more trouble than anticipated."
"Understood," Optimus acknowledged. "Autobots, maintain distance from the approaching convoy, and maintain surveillance to find out their intentions."
A/N: Chucklesome shenanigans afoot! I repurposed Sam's parents as the annoying aunt and uncle in this timeline. I also wanted to sneak in the Universal Greeting in here somewhere, and decided to throw it in here. And if it wasn't clear before, Carly Witwicky don't take kindly to Breaking Bad comparisons, though I'm trying my damndest to not actually make that joke since it didn't even exist during 2007. Also, it seems Hot Rod knows of who's coming. Will we get explanations to how? Maybe if I stop cliffhanging my A/N like the narrator for Dragon Ball Z, I'll get that done! :P
As an extra treat, (discord dot gg / NEN7ZBDq) for anyone looking to join my personal server. (URL assembly required, unfortunately that's how FF operates) The URL will last for 7 days as of the posting of this chapter, as per usual. I hope this was a good read. :)