Ratchet sighed, rubbing his optics slowly as he backed away from the screen. Sitting in my usual spot, between his helm and shoulder plate, I looked over to his faceplate worriedly. Ever since I had injuries him over a week ago, he could barely keep up with his work. I placed my hand on his helm encouragingly.

"You okay?" I asked quietly, knowing he didn't want to catch the attention of the others.

His helm turned, optics on me. "I should be fine. Just a.. helmache."

I nodded and drew my hand away, feeling my face flush a bit in embarrassment. "Okay. What is Optimus looking at?" I asked, looking over to where the leader was reading something solemnly. It sounded like a doom prophecy.

He too glanced over to the Prime worriedly. "Nothing good. It seems that the prophecy has befallen on this world."

I shuddered as the other Autobots expressed their confusion to Optimus, worry and anxiety edged in their voices. From the way it sounded, they had every right to be worried.

"Oh," Ratchet said, remembering something. "I believe that Bumblebee is picking you up from school tomorrow," he said.

I nodded. "Yes, it's his turn." Ratchet was still too injured and exhausted to drive me back and forth, barely being able to change into his alt mode without pain. The other guardians were taking turns bringing me back to base from school. Today it had been Bulkhead's turn, which would have been more pleasant if not for the music.

My guardian turned his optics back to his work. "Well, I overheard Rafael saying that he really wanted to go racing today, and also wanted you to come. Said you needed more time out of base."

I smiled, nodding again. "Okay, that's fine. Sounds fun!"

"As long as you are not driving," he said with a rare smirk.

I laughed. "Right!"

Ratchet continued his work for a little while longer before he noticed the other children working on something on Raf's laptop. He leaned over to see before his optics narrowed.

"Wait, is that Bumblebee?" he asked skeptically.

I looked over, and though it was farther away and harder to see, I could definitely tell it was the Autobot scout. Raf assured him that he had it taken care of.

"We just scrub, and replace Bee with..," Raf said slowly, dragging something over to where Bumblebee's picture had previously been.

A dancing Mars cat?

I bit back a fit of giggles, knowing that I was right next to Ratchet's audio receptor. To my surprise, however, Ratchet laughed once, nice and loudly too. I jumped in surprise as his faceplate fell when he realized what he had just done. The other kids all stared in shock.

"Ratchet actually laughed?" she said in disbelief.

Ratchet stuttered and looked away, obviously embarrassed. I bit back another snicker at his silly behavior.

"Huh," Jack chuckled. "Hey, Optimus, you wanna see something funny?"

"No," came Optimus' simple reply.

Jack flinched, but Arcee came to his rescue. "Don't take it personally. Primes are built that way."

"Yeah, I've never seen Optimus laugh, cry, or lose his cool," Bulkhead joined in, shrugging.

Ratchet glanced away from his work. "Optimus certainly keeps his emotions in check, but I've known him longer than any of you have," he explained. "And he was different before he became a Prime."

I smiled. I had nearly forgotten that the two were old friends, having known each other since before the war on Cybertron. It was crazy to think about how ancient they were to us humans, but it was completely normal to them. 

Why is it also kind of... depressing?

"So, different how?" Miko asked, moving her arms as she spoke. "We talking.. party animal?"

Ratchet waved his servo. "No, no, Optimus was more like.." he trailed off, looking over the other three humans, "..Jack."

The said boy looked up, surprised. "What? I'm nothing like a-"

"PRIME!!" shouted Agent Fowler's voice, scaring the living daylights out of me.

Ratchet felt me jump, his optics sliding over to rest on me as Agent Fowler started yelling at Optimus. "Would you like to get down?"

I shrugged. "Sure. Sorry if I startled you."

His reply was a gruff snort, indicating that I had done nothing of the sort. He reached up with his servo, extending his digits out to me. I climbed on carefully, grinning up at him as he bent over on one knee plate and allowed me to slide off. He nodded once and stood up slowly with a grunt, wincing and instinctively reaching for his abdomen. My face fell slightly, but I perked myself back up, waving a polite good bye as I went back up to the human section.

"Hey," Raf said, standing up when he saw me coming. "Me and Bee were going to go racing today. Do you wanna come with?"

I smiled. "Ratchet told me that you might want me to go. Sounds good to me!"

The boy grinned, setting his laptop down on the table. "Awesome! Bee!" he called, racing past me to find his guardian.

I chuckled after him, looking back to the other two. "I'm going with Raf. Do any of you want to come?"

Miko shook her head frantically. "This whole prophecy shebang sounds awesome! I'm staying here in case anything cool happens."

"I'm staying, too," Jack said, waving his hand dismissively. "Probably should keep an eye on her."

I laughed while Miko protested offendedly. "Okay. I'll see you guys later!"

They waved, shouting for me to be careful as I hurried off. I soon found Raf and Bumblebee at the exit, ready and raring to go. Bee perked up when he saw me, whirring something I couldn't understand.

"He says that he's glad you were able to come," Raf translated.

I nodded up to the scout. "Sure thing." I turned and cupped my hands around my mouth. "RATCHET!" I shouted loudly, startling the two behind me.

The said mech, still at the monitor, jumped and tensed when he heard his name. It took him a moment to relax and look over to where I was, giving me an unimpressed look.

I giggled playfully. "I'm going with Bee and Raf now, okay?"

He nodded, sighing. "Be careful."

Bee buzzed something in reply, which Ratchet only scoffed and rolled his optics at. I grinned as Bumblebee transformed into his alt mode and revved his engine. Raf laughed and jumped in through the open door, holding a toy car in his hand. I got in slowly, sitting next to Raf in the back. The scout beeped playfully and screeched off, going much faster than I was used to.

However, it wasn't long before Ratchet called in, saying that the Autobots required back up. Raf looked a little disappointed, but smiled in assurance when Bee gave an apologetic beep.

"It's okay, Bee," he said. "We can go racing another time."

I leaned forward in my seat, looking to the radio where the transmission had gone through. "See you soon, Ratchet."

"Alright, Taylor," he replied gently, before cutting the transmission off.

Raf threw me a teasing grin. "You two really are close."

I blushed in embarrassment. "Well, you and Bumblebee are two.." I muttered.

The younger boy laughed. "That's true, and-"

He was cut off by sudden screeching of tires. I looked out the window quickly as we jostled, realizing that we were getting shot at. I took Raf's arm protectively and tensed.

"Look out-!" I shouted as another blast made a direct hit. Something surged through my entire body, muffling a scream, before I slumped back on the seat and all went dark.

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Well, you guys can see where this is going.

Anyway, I've decided how this whole story is going to turn out. There are going to be three books, one for every season. So this one is nearly finished!!! >-< I'm so excited!

(Also, sorry if this chappy seems a little choppy, I wasn't sure how to perfectly tie this in with the episode.)

Fan_FictionGirl1 out!

*waves*