Qatar — The Middle East. 

"Oh, God, five months of this. I can't wait to get a little taste of home. A plate of mama's alligators étouffée... Mmm," Fiqs fantasized over the thought of his moms cooking like he had been for two weeks.

"You've been talking about barbecued 'gators and crickets for the last two weeks. I'm never going to your mama's house, Fig. I promise" Epps paused before continuing, "Except Mel's Waffles sound amazing right about now." Nods from the team followed soon after, they all had had Mel's cooking more than once and Figs had to hold back a nod since they all loved her cooking. 

"Yes but Bobby, Bobby-" Figs tryed.

"I'm never going to your mama's house."

"Bobby, 'gators are known to have the most succulent meat."

"I understand that," Epps told him as Lennox rubbed his temples annoyed as Figs started speaking in Spanish.

Epps started to mimic Fig's Spanish words having heard it so much he knew how to pronounce it but not know what it meant, "English, please. English."

"I don't- I mean, how many times have we don't speak Spanish. I told you that," Lennox tryed so happy that Mel didn't speak Spanish, even though he knew she was trying to learn so she could translate.

"Why you got to ruin it for me, man? That's my heritage," He continued to speak in Spanish.

"Fine. Go with the Spanish. Whatever." 

Donnelly perked, "Hey, you guys remember weekends? Huh? The Sox at Fenway. Cold hotdog and a flat beer."

"Perfect day," Figs agreed before turning to Lennox and Epps, "What about you, Captain? Sargent? You got a perfect day?"

Before they could even get one word out Donnelly opened his mouth, "I bet its that they can't wait to see Mel," Epps and Lennox blushed making the team burst out in Awww's, "they are adorable, how is she by the way?"

"She's good, had a little scare from her heart last week but she hit 7 million subscribers on her Youtube Channel," Lennox told them.

"she's in the big leagues," Epps added.

"I knew she was good, but I didn't think she was that good," Donnelly sarcastically said getting light glares as the plane landed.

Base Soldiers consisted of various chatter as they walked through the base, Epps headed for the court. "Hey, I'm ready to do this. Hey, any of y'all grow some balls, come see me on the court, man."

"Hey, hey!" A soldier yelled trying to block Epps. (I know literally nothing about basketball) 

"Watch this crossover, baby. Like Jordan in his prime, pushing through the front line."

Fig "Step aside, ladies." Figs said as went in to shoot a hoop. (probably the wrong terminology but I'm trying)

"Lennox!" A little boy named Mahfouz yelled as he ran up to Lennox with a bottle of water in hand.

"Hey, how you doing?" 

"Water?" Mahfouz asked as he held out the water which Lennox graciously took.

"Oh, thank you. Are you gonna help me with the gear?" Lennox asked getting a nod and a smile.

________________________________________________

"My Sister on?" Lennox asked as he walked into a room with a computer.

"Yes, Captain."

Lennox nodded before walking over to computer sitting down, "Ahahaha! My ladies!"

"Look," Sarah Lennox's sister said before showing off her kid causing her daughter to make baby noises.

Lennox awwwed at his nieces' cuteness, "Oh, my goodness. Look at her. She's getting so big. Look at those cheeks. I just wanna chew on them. Sis, you made a good-looking kid. I know that people say that all the time, but... Wow, you made one good-looking kid. Nice work."

"She has my laugh." 

"She laughed?" Lennox asked as Sarah's daughter made more noises.

"Her first one, yeah." 

"You la- you sure she didn't just fart?" Lennox deadpanned.

Sarah scoffed, "No, she's a lady." she said as her daughter started crying. Bobbing her up and down on her knee, "She doesn't know you yet, but she will."

The connection started to become a little unsteady, "Will?"

Lennox panicked a little, "Sarah? Hey, Sarah, if you can hear me, I love you and I'll be home soon." The connection cut, "Damn." 

Indistinguishable yelling was heard from behind the door making Lennox run out of the room, Lennox let out a grunt as he ran to Epps hearing him say, "They bombed the antenna farm! We're under attack!"

Blackout transformed as he let out electronic rumbling and screeching.

"Go! Move! Move!"Sharp shouted as he looked at the computers, "It's going after the files! Cut the hard lines!"

An Officer ran over to the hard lines box, "I need a key! It's locked!" 

Sharp ran over to the emergency ax, "Move! Move! Uh!" He had slammed the ax into the hard lines.

Lennox and his team ran around, "Here, come here! Come here!" Lennox yelled a Mahfouz who was running as Blackout spoke in Cybertronian.

Soldiers were shouting orders in panic and Lennox ran over to Mahfouz grabbing him and hiding him, "Here, hide in here!" Mahfouz nodded as Lennox ran back to his team.

Figs caught sight of Blackout, "Oh, my God. Okay."

Epps had fallen making him a good target for Blackout, "No!" Blackout started speaking in  Cybertronian as he stood over him.

Epps grabbed his binoculars and looked up, "Oh! Oh-" Blackout started scanning Epps as he spoke in Cybertronian.

"What the f-" Epps started as Lennox ran up to Epps.

"Epps, let's go!" Lennox grabbed Epps arm pulling him away from the tall dangerous robot.

Blackout let out electronic rumbling as Soldiers let out dying screams.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Students chattering quieted down as Mr. Hosney spoke, "Okay, mister Witwicky, you're up." 

Sam stood up as he walked to the podium, "Sorry, I got a lot of stuff."

Trent leaned over to Mikaela, "Watch this."

Sam started his presentation before a spitball hit his neck, "Oh-kay. For my family genea- ah-" 

Students burst out in laughter, "Who did- who did that? People! Responsibility. Continue Sam."

"Okay. Um."

Students were chortling as he began, "So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first... to explore... the Arctic Circle, which is a big deal. In 1897, he took forty-one brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf."

The screen fades in black before coming back in 1897, "Move faster, men! Move! Chop! Heave!" Archibald called out to his men.

"The ice is freezing faster than it's melting!" One of the Sailors called back.

"Chop faster!"

"Got to chop faster or we'll be stuck!" The Sailor yelled to the others.

"Heave, men! Heave! No sacrifice, no victory! We'll get to the Arctic Circle, lads!" Archibald old them before the screen faded to black again before going back to Sam so he could sell stuff.

"So that's the story, right? And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by nineteenth-century seamen." Sam started as he held up some tools making more laughter to erupt in laughter.

"This here is the quadrant, which you can get for eighty bucks. It's all for sale, by the way. Like the, uh, the sextant here." Sam continued as the laughter continued.

Mr. Hosney held up a stop sign to try - to no avail-  quiet down the class, "Fifty dollars for this, which is a bargain. These are pretty cool. These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things."

Mr. Hosney and a random girl in the back looked at him annoyed, "Are you going to sell me his liver? Mr. Witwicky, this is not show and sell. It's the eleventh grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing." Mr. Hosney asked him.

"I know. I'm sorry. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks. It's on eBay. I take PayPal. Cold hard cash works, too." Sam apologized as students laughed. "And the compass makes a great gift for Columbus Day."

"Sam!" Author~chan yelled at the tv- I mean at Sam...In the classroom, she yelled at him from the back of the classroom.

"Sorry. Um, unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was, wound up going blind and crazy in a psycho ward, drawing these strange symbols and babbling on about some, uh, giant ice man that he thought he'd discovered."

Mr. Hosney sighed, "Okay. Might be a pop quiz tomorrow. Might not. Sleep in fear tonight, and Author I know you like writing but please not in class."

Sam walked up to Author holding out a pair of glasses, "Here, you want? Here, fifty. Forty? Thirty?" 

"That might mean something in the future," and with that Author walked away to a different fandom.

"Sam?" Mr. Hosney called out making Sam walk up to him.

"Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Okay. Pretty good, right?"

"Uh... I'd say a solid B-minus."

Sam eyes went wide as he heard those words, "A B-minus?"

"You were hawking your great-grandfather's crap in my classroom." 

"No, kids enjoy- Look, can you do me a favor?"

Mr. Hosney looked at him with a sour tone, "What?"

"Can you look out the window for a second?" Sam looked out the window expecting to see his dad in his cheep green car, not his friend who was practically his only link with Mikaela sitting in his Dad's car, "You see my friend? She's the girl in the green car."

"Nh. Yeah."

"Okay, I wanna tell you about a dream. A boy's dream. And a man's promise to that boy. He looked at me in the eye. He said, "Son, I'm gonna buy you a car. But I want you to bring me two thousand dollars, and three As." Okay? I got the two thousand dollars and I got two As. Okay? Here's the dream. Your B-minus. Poof. The dream is gone. Kaput. Sir, just ask yourself, what would Jesus do?" Sam asked using his famous line of what would Jesus do.

________________________________________________

Sam ran out of the school with his paper in hand as he ran to the car screaming, "Yes! Yes, yes."

"So?" Mel asked with her signature gray hoody on having her long, side-swept, straight white with the tips dyed green hair braided to the side, along with a pair of aviator glasses showing off her silver specked gray eyes. No, she isn't blind nor did she bleach her hair, it was all natural, she was born with it. Her parents didn't want her she always thought since she was left on the doorstep of an Orphanage, but she still wanted to make them proud. She was also born with an arm birthmark of a robot face.

"A-minus. It's an A, though," Sam hopped into the car shoving the paper in her face.

"Wait, wait, wait. I can't see. It's an A." Mel told him as she started towards the dealership.

"So what are you doing here?" Sam asked.

"I already posted the video for this week and finished the one for next week so Ron asked me to take you to get a car, he did give me a budget of 4 though" Mel explained as she drove. "He also told me to take you past the Porsche dealership so you thought he was getting you a Porsche, sorry but we're headed for a cheap one."

"You think that's funny?" Sam asked her shocked and mad at his Dad.

"No I don't Sam, I'm your friend."

"And your a good one too,"  Sam told her as he put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, no I'm not. I have to go to the place your dad told me to go to get you a car."

"You're still a good friend, you'll help me pick right?" Sam asked her getting a nod.

She pulled up to the dealership, getting out of the car as a man walked up to them. "Gentleman. Lady. Bobby Bolivia, like the country, except without the runs. How can I help you?" He chuckled.

"Well, my friend here... Is looking to buy his first car," Mel explained.

"You come to see me?" Bobby asked putting a hand over his heart.

"I had to," Sam grumbled out in a sour tone.

"That practically makes us family. Uncle Bobby B, baby. Uncle Bobby B." Bobby held out his hand for them to shake.

"Sam."

"Mel," They both said their names as they shook the man's hand.

Bobby slung his arm around Sam's shoulder as he slithered his other arm around Mel's waist making her jump away from him making a mental note to have him looked into as a pedophile later, "Sam, Mel, let me talk to you. Sam, your first enchilada of freedom awaits underneath one of those hoods. Let me tell you something, son. A driver doesn't pick the car. The car'll pick the driver."

"Like the wand chooses the wizard?" Mel asked.

"You know a guy named Olivander told me that once," Bobby told her before turning to Sam. "It's a mystical bond between man and machine. Son, I'm a lot of things, but a liar's not one of them."

Sam nodded with pursed lips not really enjoying the fact that this guy who was probably 40 had his arm around a 24-year-old woman.

"Especially not in front of my mammy. That's my mammy. Hey, Mammy! Ooh, don't be like that. If I had a rock, I'd bust your head, bitch. I tell you, man, she deaf, you know? Well, over here, every piece of a car a man might want or need."

Mel a little scared pulled herself away before grabbing Sam, "We're just going to go check the lot, ok? Bye."

"I don't like him," Sam told her once they were out of earshot.

"Same. Remind me later I need to have John and Sherlock look into him as a pedophile," Sam nodded as they looked at the cars.

Bee was in the lot waiting patiently for Sam to come buy him, but he was not expecting his favorite YouTuber, Silver Note, to be there. Yes, he was a huge fanboy of her and was squealing internally, trying not to blow his cover by transforming and asking her to sign his forehead.

"This ain't bad. This one's got racing stripes." Sam said as he walked up to the Autobot.

Mel followed behind him smirking at the car, "Nice find."

Bobby walked up behind them, "Yeah. It got racing- Yeah, what's this? What the heck is this? I know nothing about this car. Manny!"

The said man named Manny peaked out from the garage, "What?"

"What is this? This car! Check it out!" Bobby yelled at him.

Manny looked shocked before he called back, "I don't know, boss! I've never seen it! That's loco!"

"Don't go Ricky Ricardo on me, Manny! Find out!" Bobby yelled again as Sam got into the front seat.

"Feels good," Sam mumbled.

"You like the car?" Mel asked getting a nod so she turned to Bobby, "How much?"

"Well, considering the semi-classic nature of the vehicle, with the slick wheels and the custom paint job..."

"I'm gonna stop you right there, one the car is old and damaged, two it's probably got a lot of problems with it, and three the paint might be custom but that means nothing after its faded," Mel explains having learned all this from Mikaela's father who practically raised her.

"Well, you're a girl. I wouldn't expect you to understand. Five grand." The glare that Mel gave that man would be enough to make a war stop and have both sides back away in fear.

"No, I'm not paying over four. Sorry. I've got a budget and that's way too high anyway," Mel growled out with a look of hate on her face from his earlier statement.

Bobby ignored her, "Kid, come on, get out. Get out the car."

Sam jumped a bit, "No, no, no. You said cars pick their drivers."

"Well, sometimes they pick a driver with a cheap-hot-ass friend. Out the car." He told Sam making Mel look at him with disgust, "Now, this one here for four Gs is a beaut."

Before Bobby could leave Bee swung his door open successfully hitting Bobby, "serves you right." Mel mumbled before turning to Sam, "We have two options, one is we stay here and bargain the price lower, or two we go to a different dealership."

"Greater than man..." Bee played quietly catching Mel and Sam's attention.

Bobby was still trying, "That one's my favorite, drove all the way from Alabama."

"Duck for cover!" Bee played through the radio making Mel's training from Lennox and Epp's kicked in making her run over to Sam pulling him down and putting her hands over his ears.

Bee changed his radio levels making a sound to accrue shattering all the glass except his and whoah's to erupt.

Bobby looked around in horror before looking at the three, "Four thousand!"