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❝ CHAPTER 26 ── THE
VAULT ❞
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━━━━━ THEY MADE IT back to NEST, Ironhide came out and transformed as the police Decepticons followed behind them. Daisy pulled in behind Bee, Stephanie climbed out running over to Lennox and her brother.

"Lennox!" Sam shouted. "We got Decepticons everywhere." Sam told him and Stephanie.

"I've got my whole team deployed looking for them. Ironhide! Protect Sentinel! Get him locked up inside!" Lennox shouted.

"Consider it done!" Ironhide said, as he shifted and looked at the humans.

"Hey, you've got to guard him, cause he's the key to the whole thing."

"Indeed, I am. What you must realize, my Autobot brothers, is we were never going to win the war." Sam, Stephanie, Hero, and Caspian all looked at the Autobot. "For the sake of our planet's survival, a deal had to be made with Megatron." Sentinel turned around and shot Ironhide in the chest.

"No!" Stephanie shouted, going to run towards the Autobot. However Hero and Caspian grabbed a hold of her, stopping her from putting herself in danger.

"Get back!" Lennox shouted.

"What have you done?" Ironhide asked Sentinel Prime.

"I hereby discharge you from duty."

Sentinel Prime proceeded to shoot Ironhide once more causing Bee and Daisy as well as some of the humans to be thrown to the ground.

"Bee!"

"Daisy!" Lennox grabbed a hold of Sam while Hero grabbed a hold of Stephanie again. They ran out of the line of fire as Sentinel continued to shoot at them and destroy everything.

"Rally all NEST forces back to base! Come on!" Lennox said, pulling Sam.

Stephanie tried to break free from Hero's grasp to get to Daisy but she couldn't break free of his grasp. They ran into the building pulling the injured men in as well. Lennox was running, Sam, Stephanie, Hero, Caspian and a few others were following him.

"We don't have enough men! Do not engage Sentinel!" Stephanie ran up the steps following behind Lennox. Sentinel was destroying everything in the building. "Director Mearing, come on. We can't fight him. Let's go. We have to go."

"Now return what belongs to me!" Sentinel said, as he destroyed more of the building.

"Oh, my god!" Mearing shouted, the shock evident on her face. The Witwicky siblings came to a stop watching Optimus drive in and transform. Soon Lennox, Hero, Caspian and Mearing had caught up with them. "Yeah, take a look Optimus! This is all on you!"

"Sentinel hit the vault! Took the pillars."

"Shit!" Stephanie breathed out, lowering her head. Meanwhile Lennox kicked a piece of metal.

"Come on, let's go. All right, notify the 101st Airborne!" They all followed after Lennox. "We need to hunt this thing down!"

───── ☾☾☾ ─────

Hero and Caspian went with Lennox while Stephanie made sure that Sam got back home. She waited outside while Sam went in to see if Carly was in their apartment. Minutes later he came out with Bonecrusher. Sam walked over to their parents' little home and opened the door helping Bonecrusher up the steps. Stephanie followed behind him.

"Mom, Dad, have you guys seen Carly come home yet?" Sam asked them.

"Excuse me. Can you knock, please? This is our bedroom." Judy told her two children.

"Why wouldn't she be at home?" Ron proceeded to ask his son.

"We had a fight and we might have broken up, or be on a break. I don't really know." Sam informed the two.

"What?" Judy asked, standing up from the couch. "No."

"Look, I can't talk about it right now. I can't go into details, Mom. I have to find her." Judy walked over to Sam and grabbed a hold of his arms and pulled him over to the couch then she walked over to Stephanie and did the same.

"Sit down. We're having a family meeting. Family meeting!" Sam and Stephanie both exchanged looks with each other. "You may not know this, but your father and I were not always this perfectly happy. You know, there was a time in our marriage when I thought this was not gonna work out."

"Can we please not?"

"What does this have to do with me?" Stephanie asked, looking between her mother and father.

"She's damaging him." Ron said.

"You break up with one world-class hottie..."

"No. Stop. Stop, okay? She dumped me, I moved on to something better. That's it. I'm a happier person."

"The second beautiful girl, and you lose her."

"Why don't you help me?" Sam asked their father.

"They had an argument."

"A fight."

"You're not gonna get a third one, I mean, unless you have like a big..."

"What the... Ma!"

"Mom, come on!"

"Maybe you just don't know what you're doing."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"I want to be excused from this conversation." Stephanie remarked.

"You need the book. Tell him about the book."

"You're always wrong. Get used to it."

"Okay. You've got to read this. She comes first. There's some killer shit in here."

"No. No."

"That's it, I'm going."

"No! No!"

"I'm coming too!" Stephanie said.

"Sit down, sit down! Back me up!"

"Happy wife, happy life." Ron said, looking at Sam.

"Heck yeah." Judy proceeded to sit down next to Ron looking at both Sam and Stephanie.

"Unhappy wife, stone-cold misery for the rest of your..."

"Stop." Judy said, shoving her hand into Ron's arm.

"It's true."

"All I'm saying is, do you love this girl?" Judy went on to ask.

"She's the one." Sam replied.

"Then you gotta go get her. I mean, your dad and I, when we had troubles, he moved heaven and earth to find me. Say what you said. Say it." Judy looked at her husband.

"'I will follow you to the end of time.' Does that suck or what?" Ron asked, switching eye contact between both kids.

"No. It is so sweet." Judy proceeded to hug him.

"It's like a bad sci-fi film." Sam stood up and walked to the door, he then turned to look back at his parents. Stephanie followed behind him.

"I want you to get out of the city. You get as far away from here as you can. You understand? I love you." With those words Sam walked out of the bus.

"I love you guys too." Stephanie said shortly after. She followed behind her brother. "I'm coming with you to help find Carly." Sam looked at Stephanie and nodded his head. Then he walked over to the garage and opened the door to reveal his old car.