Author's Notes; Guest, Rung might well be a good choice for helping Autumn, but I have someone else in mind who can actually do a better job of it. As for who that someone might be… well you'll just have to read on.
Mikaela POV
When I finally made it back to the hangar, all four of the bots were there waiting for me… well five if you count Ravage. I had an ice-chest with me and a backpack of clothes. Yeah, we're going to spend a lot of time near the ocean and I'm not supposed to go swimming or do a bit of sunbathing? Yeah…right! Almost as soon as I walked in Elita told me that they were ready to go. All three of the older femmes transformed, and my eyes lit up at the sight of no less than three Lotus Exige cars sitting in front of me. Then Autumn put Ravage down and transformed. I knew… just knew that my jaw was on the ground. A brilliant emerald green Ferrari Dino was sitting in front of me and I was about ready to start drooling. Okay, so hot cars are supposed to be more of a guy thing… but I'm a mechanic, and I have stripped more cars than I can mention, sometimes after stealing them with my dad. The fact is, I know a nice machine when I see one, and Autumn was one seriously fine automobile!
"God I wish I could drive!" I said in a soft wistful voice while staring straight at her.
"I'm not very good yet… so you… you probably know how to drive better than I do. Just… just promise me you won't crash okay?" Autumn replied hesitantly.
"You're kidding… right?" I asked in shock. "You…you'd really let me drive?"
"As long as… if… if you promise not to crash." Autumn answered in a scared tone.
"Autumn, you have my absolute promise on that. I swear that we won't crash!" I said truthfully with my eyes still wide in surprise.
"Okay." Autumn said as she opened both doors.
"Mikaela, go ahead and put your ice-chest and bag in my seats, and I'll carry them for you, since Ravage is going to be taking up Autumn's passenger seat." Arcee suggested.
That was a good idea. I put my stuff in Arcee's seats and noticed that none of them had any back seats at all. I went over and got in Autumn's driver's seat and couldn't help it as my eyes were drawn to Ravage. That metal panther was taking up the whole passenger seat! Now that I was up close to her, I could see that Ravage was huge! She didn't look that huge in Autumn's arms though, and I had to think about it for a second before I realized why. Autumn was big enough that Ravage looked like an oversized housecat when Autumn was holding her, but now? Now Ravage was sitting next to me and she was huge.
I was still staring at that giant metal panther when Optimus knelt down next to the car and started talking to me. I was glad that the windows were already down.
"Mikaela, I know that you will not allow an accident to occur while you are driving, but I need you to understand that Autumn's frame is still very fragile compared to ours. The materials she is composed of are much easier to replace, but they are also much easier to damage. Autumn is very important to us for many reasons, not least of which is her young age. By human reckoning, she is approaching the age of adulthood, but by our reckoning and standards, she is a newborn infant, and would be under careful observation by adult bots to prevent her from coming to harm. The only reason I am allowing her such privileges is because she was a human and has matured according to human development. That does not mean that I am willing to place her at risk. Is that understood?" Optimus said seriously.
I nodded and smiled at him as I replied. "Optimus… you know good and well that you won't have to worry about her as long as she's with me. I did a pretty good job of dealing with Frenzy, and I was a big help to Bee when his legs were blown off. Besides Chromia'll be with us! Hide told me that she's even better in a fight than he is. Then there's Arcee and Elita to consider. Somehow I don't think they'll go down very easy."
Optimus huffed and gave me a small but still sad smile. "You're absolutely right Mikaela… they won't be defeated easily. I shouldn't be worried about Autumn tonight, but I am. She is a Cybertronian ow, and therefore she is under my protection. I know there's not a bot on this island that wouldn't protect Autumn, but that still doesn't stop me from worrying about her."
"Well just relax Optimus, Autumn will be fine. Between me, Arcee, Chromia, and Elita… we got this covered. And if Ravage is anything like an Earth cat, someone's going to have a serious problem, because cats are sneaky!" I said as I reassured him.
"I don't know if she's sneaky or not, but Ravage has missiles too!" Autumn exclaimed.
"Missiles?"
"She showed those to me this morning. Chromia also said that she has a plasma cannon too, but I haven't seen it." Autumn confirmed.
I snapped my head around to stare at Ravage with wide eyes. "As if those metal fangs and claws aren't enough! Remind me never to get on your bad side."
"Chromia? How… how do I let Mikaela drive? I don't know what I'm supposed to do." Autumn asked hesitantly.
"That's easy Autumn, just start your engine and let Mikaela work the controls. You don't have to help or anything, but don't try to stop her from using them either. Once she starts trying to do something, you'll feel the difference. You'll know that you can stop her just by refusing to allow those controls to move as she wants them too." Chromia answered easily.
"Okay… I… I can do that."
I couldn't help being pissed at the whole situation. Autumn didn't have any self confidence anymore. The more I heard her say, the madder I got. No one deserved this… especially not teens like me, her, and Sam. It isn't right, but there also isn't a whole lot I can do about it either. Elita said that the Autobots know how to deal with Autumn's problems, and I can only hope that's true, because honestly? I'd like to be friends with the Autumn I remember, she'd make for a kick ass bot that would give Ironhide a serious run for his money.
Autumn started her engine, and that V-8 sounded awesome! Okay, so the Dino is a lower end Ferrari with a V-8 instead of a V-10 or V-12, but they still looked stylish and lines that just screamed speed and performance! I couldn't help but be more than a little turned on by the sound of her engine. I'll admit it… if I was a guy… I'd have a raging hard on right now; she sounded that good. I knew I had a big stupid grin on my face, and I was almost drooling at the thought that I was about to drive one of the hottest cars in the world! Orgasm much? I sure felt like I was about to!
I looked over at Ravage with a smirk on my lips and a gleam in my eyes. "Ravage…" I said before waiting until the metal panther looked over at me. "you might want to hang on somehow."
"Oh Primus." Autumn said softly.
I had no idea what that meant, so I revved up the engine and popped the clutch for a tire squealing exit. I only let the tires spin for a couple of brief seconds to heat up, once they had, I let off the gas to let them get traction, and took off like a rocket.
We tore out of the hangar like a rocket sled on rails. I knew Arcee, Elita, and Chromia were right behind us, because I could see them in formation through my side view mirrors. All three of them pulled up on the right hand side as we sped down the tarmac. Four wide we flew down the tarmac at speeds that would get us thrown under the jail back in the states. I let off the gas just enough to drop back a bit, then I let off completely as I threw the car into a spin. I don't know how many times we spin in circles. Autumn was yelling something, and I was caught up in a mix of a scream and laughing at the same time. It was a scary thing to do, but there wasn't anything we could hit, so this was actually a safe place to pull a stunt like that. It was something I'd wanted to do for a long time, but outside of Salt Flats in Utah, I didn't know of any other place to try it… until now. When we finally slid to a stop, I realized that Autumn was laughing, but then so was I.
"Mikaela… if you are through playing perhaps we can finish heading to the cliffs for this 'night out'?" Arcee told me.
At least I think it was Arcee! Everything was spinning so fast that I couldn't have made a straight line with anything to save my life!
"I'd love to Arcee, but I'm so dizzy right now that I couldn't walk or drive a straight line if I had to!" I answered with a laugh. "I can't even see straight right now."
"Well, I don't see any reason to doubt your word, because I'm Chromia, not Arcee!"
"Sorry! I don't recognize your voices yet, and I too dizzy right now to see who said what."
"I didn't get dizzy at all." Autumn said mournfully.
"You didn't? Not at all?"
"No." Autumn answered quietly.
"Okay… I'm the one who needs to be green right now. Although whether that's green with envy, or green because I'm getting seasick, I'm not sure."
"Mikaela if you're going to puke… please, please puke on the runway and not in me!" Autumn said in a pleading tone.
"Relax Autumn, I'm not about to puke, but I don't think I'm going to try that again either."
"Why not? That was kinda fun." Autumn said in an almost hurt tone.
"I'm not gonna lie… that was an absolute blast! But I think if I go through that again, I will be puking, and I don't think you'll have time to stop and let me out so I can, and I am not going to puke on you or in you!" I answered with a smile as the world quit spinning.
"Thank you."
A stupid line went through my head at that point and I started laughing hard. "Autumn, I started to say 'what are friends for?', but then I realized just how stupid that would be. Friends don't puke on each other unless the puker is totally drunk off their butt, or they both are. Since we're both sober, puking isn't allowed." I said when I finally stopped laughing.
"Okay, so now what?"
"Now? We get it in gear!"
Autumn POV
I couldn't help but want to grin right along with Ravage as Mikaela shoved my accelerator pedal to the floor. She popped the clutch and we started off with my back tires screaming. It was strange, because the lessons that Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had been giving me kept coming to processor.
'As soon as your tires begin to spin let off the acceleration just enough to regain traction. That way you'll have the fastest take off you can manage.'
Yeah, they had taught me the fastest way to take off, but it wasn't half as fun as what Mikaela was doing. Okay, so we weren't moving very fast, in fact we were just creeping along, but my tires were screaming like a banshee the whole time. My aft was sliding from one side to the other and Mikaela was working my steering wheel to keep us going somewhat straight. We were both yelling because it felt so good. This wasn't like my lessons from Jazz or the Twins because I didn't have to pay attention to anything… all I had to do was have fun. Mikaela was making sure that I did.
By the time she was through, there were strips of rubber over one hundred yards long on the tarmac! She and I were both laughing about it. It felt good to laugh, to forget about everything except what was happening right then. It was great, but I knew that sooner or later, everything would come crashing back down on me, and that thought scared me.