NSA File 77014392

Incident Report

Mikaela Barnes

Clearance level 9 Eyes Only

I guess I should start this out by explaining that most of what you're about to read, you won't believe. I've helped to save your life at least twice at this point. The first time was about four years ago, just as I was graduating high school. I had just turned 18 years old and thought I knew everything. The second time was only a few months after that when my then boyfriend and the love of my life, Sam, had started college. Sam was eighteen then also and thought he knew it all too.

Sam has a truly strange relationship with the refugees from a planet called Cybertron. These advanced and intelligent mechanical beings have a connection with Sam that goes far beyond their normal relationships with the people on this planet.

Probably the first thing that's going through your mind right now is skepticism. You're thinking that if there was alien life on the planet our government would know about it. Well, there is and they do. So now you're thinking that you should have heard about it, right? You're thinking about the Freedom of information act and the government's responsibility to inform citizens of the things they're engaged in.

In order for the FOIA to come into effect, you have to go looking for the info, find it and request that it be unclassified. And the government actually does inform you of these things. They just have a very slick way of doing it so it doesn't alarm the little people down on the farms and in the suburbs, but they do tell you.

The way they do it is they get one of those hotshot Hollywood types to make a "Movie" about something seemingly fantastic that actually did happen. In a lot of cases these "Movies" are so farfetched that it's very easy for people to believe that they're Sci-Fi.

That automatically means that only a handful of geeks and nerds who we all think are crazy anyway will go to see them. While these "Special" individuals clean their giant thick glasses and put their calculators back inside their pocket protectors long enough to wonder whether or not trucks and cars that transform into robots actually exist, we just look at them and smile. After all these are the same guys who spend their time trying to learn to speak Klingon and dress up funny for comic-book conventions. Most of these same guys know every girder, beam, nut , bolt and circuit that went into the building of the Starship Enterprise, but couldn't unsap a bra to save their lives.

Anyway, the beginning of our romance was detailed in a "Movie" called "Transformers". Surprisingly the movie got a lot of stuff right. I guess our government didn't want to knowingly lie about it. But there are things that really were downplayed in that movie. Like the differences between Sam and me.

Sam really is the All-American, boy next door type. He is born and bred to be successful and a hero and have sunshine and rainbows streaming out of his ass and all of that stuff. Me on the other hand, not so much. I'm the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who started out with a bad example and things just went down-hill from there.

My childhood memories include stealing cars with my dad, stripping stolen cars with my dad and a bunch of other things that I had to sometimes do just to survive. One thing I've never had a problem with is men. Don't get things twisted here, I'm not exactly beautiful. I'm just hot, in a trailer trash type of way. If you really look at me closely, you can see how bad my skin is and how ratty my hair is. But I wear my skirts short enough and my tops tight enough that no one really notices it.

Anyway that first movie details how I met Sam, and how we met the Autobots and the Decepticons. It also told about how Sam and Bumblebee forged their relationship. The second "Movie" went even deeper. "Revenge of the Fallen" told how Sam really became bonded with Optimus Prime, the Autobots' leader. Sam actually saved Optimus Prime's life. Prime then went on to save the world from total destruction. I was along for the ride again. The thing the second "Movie" also shows but again in a downplayed role, is the stress that was already on my relationship with Sam and how we were just going in different directions, or at least at different speeds.

Sam of course headed off to college and me stuck here at home waiting by the phone for him to call me while I babysat my jailbird father, who was only let out of jail in the first place because Sam and I helped save the world the first time.

Even if I wasn't watching my dad, I had neither the money nor the grades for a big college. That was Sam's goal, not mine. So things were kind of interesting between us anyway. I truly believe that if it hadn't been for the need for us to save the world again my relationship with Sam would have died anyway. And it would have died not with a bang, but with a whimper. Something truly special would have become cheap and tawdry. I can see Sam being attracted to some of the girls at his school and them with him, much like the way that Decepticon bitch Alice tried to have her way with him in his dorm.

Of course I'm not going to try and tell you that I'd have been sitting home knitting either. Guys hit on me every day and if Sam wasn't here taking care of business, eventually I'd have fallen for someone else too. But we had a bigger problem.

That whole fame thing was really causing problems for us. I realized that like a lot of great high school romances, Sam and I were just not ready for the long haul yet. We needed to separate for a while so we could each grow and maybe a few years down the line when we were ready for a truly adult commitment, come back together.

The problem is that Sam is so cute and so noble that I couldn't just dump him, even when it was for his own good. After the events of the second "Movie" Sam was such a hero that breaking up with him would have been considered treason.

After all, not every girl has a hero who was supposed to receive a medal from the President of the United States as a boyfriend. There was also the fact that Sam wanted to go into the whole intelligence thing. He wanted to work with the Autobots and the government to secure our freedom and protect us from threats. Sam himself was squeaky clean, as were his parents. But trying to get into the world of secrets with a girlfriend with a criminal record, from a family of criminals, was like trying to swim with a boulder chained to your neck. So I had to break up with Sam, not only for the good of our relationship, long term, but to prevent me from interfering with Sam's dreams.

The government rewarded both Sam and me after the events of the second "Movie". Sam got a medal from the president, and they paid a ridiculous amount of money for his education at a fancy college, including tuition and room and board.

In my case I just got a bunch of money that I wasn't sure what I'd do with at that point. We had to attend a bunch of dinners and ceremonies all over Washington DC where we were honored. Sam ate it up. He was great at charming the politicians and the military types as well. I just didn't take to it. I always felt awkward and out of place.

There was also the fact that the clothes I had to wear didn't suit me and I didn't know how to act. I guess I'm kind of like those guys who just never wear a suit and tie because they don't feel comfortable in them. I feel the same way about formal dresses and fancy dinners. I'm just a shorts and pizza type of girl.

I guess in some of those situations I was an embarrassment to Sam, but he never let it show. "I love you Mikaela, fuck them," was how he usually put it. And I love Sam too, far too much to hold him back, so I had to do something to set him free before I messed up his career.

The problem was that I love Sam too much to ever dump him. Forget about the way he says it in the new "Movie", I did not dump Sam. Actually I'm still hurt about the way it happened. Because things did not go as they were supposed to. What you hear Sam saying in the "Movie" is just his wounded pride and his male ego talking.

The way it happened was like this. Once I decided that Sam and I needed to take a break, for the reasons I've already mentioned, I needed to find a way to make it happen.

While Sam was taking Bumblebee for some kind of military demo or something that I really had no interest in, I ran into my ex, Trent. You probably remember him from the first movie. He was a real arrogant dickhead who drove a Hummer that his parents bought him and wouldn't let me drive it.

Anyway I decided that he'd be perfect for helping me play a little deception on Sam, especially since Sam still had just a touch of an inferiority complex when it came to those bigger, stronger guys from high school. Realistically Sam is a much better, stronger person than all of those guys. He's saved the world at least twice for God's sake. But he never got over his jealousy of those football players. Even though most of them washed out and weren't good enough to play college ball and not even one of them made it to the pros.

Trent washes dishes in a local diner as a matter of fact. He got stuck and had to marry some cheerleader that he got pregnant after he and I broke up. His parents decided he needed to do something on his own, so they let him dangle. His life is a living hell and Sam gets to go all over the world doing cool shit.

I got Trent to agree to a bit of play acting to make Sam angry with me. So about a week before Sam was supposed to go to DC to receive his medal, I sprung my trap. Sam usually came by the garage a little bit after it closed each night to pick me up. Sam was usually so regular I could set my clock by him. We usually just drove Bumblebee out into the country and hung out, like at the end of the second "Movie".

So at just after six I left the door to the garage cracked and started pretending to make out with Trent. Things had never gone very far between Trent and I before I dumped him so this was our first time together and it was supposed to be fake because Sam would be showing up any moment.

Trent started kissing me and feeling me up. I told him to stop and wait until Sam got there. He reminded me that we wanted it to look real and to convince Sam we might need to show some skin to really sell it.

So he kept kissing me and he opened my shirt. Let's face it my boobs really aren't spectacular so what was the harm. He started kissing them and I got ready to stop him but he said he'd heard something. It might be Sam. So I got into it so we could sell the act. He kept kissing me and he started sucking on my nipples. Every time I objected he heard something. Then I thought I heard something too.

I'm a healthy young girl and all of that activity did get me started. Trent started rubbing his fingers against my pussy through my panties. He told me not to worry when I protested. He reminded me that he was married. I guess in my mind, I really thought that he wouldn't do anything wrong.

A few minutes later I actually heard something outside, so when he pulled my panties down I couldn't afford to object. His fingers felt really good too. The stupid thing was that in my mind I was remembering Sam doing that same thing to me less than twenty-four hours prior.

Then one of the fingers went inside me. I was wet and ready and that finger made me want more. I had mentally checked out. My hormones were in control. The next thing I knew Trent had replaced his fingers with his dick. He slammed it home in one stroke and it really fucking hurt. I'm not the biggest girl out there so I screamed, because again, it really fucking hurt.

Trent was smiling and nodded his head off to the side. I was on the verge of slapping the cowboy shit out of him and making him get off of me when I noticed what he was looking at.

Sam was standing in the open doorway. His face was frozen with a surprised look on it. His mouth was open but no words would come. The boy who was used to making split second decisions that the fate of the world rested on couldn't think of a word to say. My heart went out to him, and I died a bit that day, but it was for the best.

"Fuck me Trent," I screamed pulling him into me again.

Trent pushed me down on the couch and started slamming me. He fucked me so hard that he bruised my vagina. I wanted to cry over both the physical pain his slamming me caused me and the emotional pain it was causing the man I love. "Oh yeah baby, just like that," I cried. "Don't ever stop fucking me Trent."

"Whose pussy is this, slut," he asked.

"It's yours, baby," I yelled. "It always was and it always will be."

"What about Sam Wetwilly?" he asked.

"Sam who?" I said. "You're the only one who matters. Make me yours. Cum in me. Fill me up."

Just then we heard the door slam so loud it nearly came off of its hinges.

The slamming of the door ended the act. I screamed again and the fire in my eyes should have warned Trent, but he always was a little bit stuck on himself.

"You weren't supposed to actually fuck me," I yelled pushing him away from me in disgust.

"Come on baby let me finish," he said. "That tight little pussy feels so good."

"Okay, baby come and get what's yours," I cooed. As Trent smiled and came over to me I kneed him in his engorged penis as hard as I could. Then I stood over him watching as he deflated like a balloon with a hole in it into a gibbering mess at my feet.

"Look at me Trent," I yelled grabbing his face. "Sam is at least ten times the man you'll ever be."

He just stared at me, the pain in his nuts rendering him unable to participate in the conversation. But I knew the pain he was feeling right now would eventually go away. I wanted to give him something to take home to his wife. So I raked my fingernails across his face and then across his chest. Then I went down his leg close to where his hands were holding his aching dick.

His wife couldn't miss those scratches and from their locations she'd at least know that he was nearly naked with someone.

"Get the fuck out of my garage," I screamed at him.

He limped, bleeding and angry towards the door. "I don't know why you're so pissed," he whimpered. "You got what you wanted; Sam WhoSnacky won't want to have anything to do with you."

"We were only supposed to make him angry enough to dump me, asshole. Not angry enough to make him want me out of his life forever. There's a good chance that I'll never get him back now."

"If you wanted to get him back, why'd you do this in the first place?" he asked. "What is so God Damned special about Sam Wetsucky?"

"I love him stupid?" I snapped. "And Sam is way more special than either one of us. He's going to go places in his life and do great things. But until he gets started and established in his life, I can only hold him back and limit his opportunities. So as much as I love him and he loves me, I needed to push him away from me for a little while."

He just held onto his now throbbing nuts and looked at me like I was crazy.

"Ah, I never liked Wimpnutsy anyway," he sneered. "If he's so great how come he didn't play football?"

"Listen dumbass," I told him. "You never paid Sam any attention until he took me away from you. And if playing football makes you great, why the fuck is Sam getting a medal from the president next week and you'll still be washing dishes? Why did Sam end up with me and you have that fat girl?"

"You got one thing wrong babe," he smirked. "You ain't gonna end up with Sam now."

I got so pissed that I kicked him in the nuts again. Then I pushed him outside of the garage while I packed. I climbed the stairs to the apartment over the garage that I was using. The place was a wreck though I'd just cleaned it that morning. The TV was on and so was the radio, the stereo and every other electronic device in the small space. Over in the corner with the window wide open, Wheelie lounged on a pillow. He was allowing the setting sun to recharge his solar array while he lubricated himself with oil he'd stolen from the garage.

"What's eating you doll?" he asked.

"Wheelie, you need to go to Sam, I'm leaving," I told him. He looked shocked.

He jumped up from the chair and started transforming into a number of small items that would easily fit into a suitcase.

"It's not going to work, Wheelie," I said, barely able to keep the tears from coming. "I don't know where I'm going but Sam is going to need all of his friends." He slowly nodded at me and didn't say anything.

I emailed Sam a note. I set my email account to send the note in three days. That would give me a chance to get away. I wrote an email to Sam's mom as well. In the letter to his mom I thanked her for always being nice to me. I explained what I was doing to Sam to her and why it was necessary and begged her not to ever tell him. I told her that I hoped someday when we were both older that Sam would understand and forgive me because I really loved him. I told her that a little bit of heartache now was better for him in the long run, than years of frustration and finally hating me for preventing his dreams from coming true.

Then lastly I wrote a note on paper to my dad. I couldn't email him because he sucked with computers and would probably never find it. I left it on his coffee cup which was the first thing he grabbed when he came into the garage every morning.

I told him that I loved him, but that I had to go. It was finally time for him to stand on his own two feet and do the right things in life. Not because it was the easy thing to do but because it would keep him out of jail, prove he was finally a grown up and keep his daughter's love and respect. I told him that I'd be back in a while so to keep the home fires burning. And that if he was involved in anything under the table when I did get back, I'd turn him in myself.

So with a broken heart I left town. I ended up in Chicago of all places. I guess I'm a big city girl at heart. Luckily with the money I got from the government I didn't have to worry about finding a job too soon. I just needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

Believe it or not I decided that I wanted to go to school. I wanted to study to become an automotive technician. I'd always been great with cars and maybe I could even someday help out Sam and the Autobots that way too.

In order to get around, I needed a car myself though. I didn't want to blow through my government money too fast so I decided to go with a used car. I guess the parallels between myself and Sam continued even though I'd left town. In the same way that Sam had found Bumblebee in a used car lot, I found him.

I'd always been partial to muscle cars anyway, I'm sure you guys remember my little scene in the first movie where I just gushed as I leaned over the hood of Sam's car for the first time. Anyway He was a little bit busted up and had been trying to fix himself at night. Plus he'd been painted a different color. The Autobots and Decepticons give off a particular energy. Maybe it's because of their energon processors but I was drawn to him before I knew who he was.

Honest to God I thought he was just another Black Mustang GT until one night a couple of days after I'd bought him. I was half asleep when I heard that weird electronic sound they make as they transform.

I ran out into my driveway and looked around. At first I thought that wheelie had followed me but when I looked around I noticed that my Mustang was slightly different.

I got into the car and drove out away from the city. I know it was a stupid thing to do, but I was in a weird place. Besides I really hadn't dealt with very many Decepticons up close and personal. Wheelie had started out that way, but in the second "Movie" he found out that he had a choice.
I got out of the car with only the trees to witness what I was about to do.

"Okay, I know what you are. There's no one around, so let's talk," I said. Nothing happened. "I can wait all night. There's really nothing going on in my life right now. I'm a refugee. I don't know what or who from. I don't even know what I'll end up being. I actually feel kind of lost. So I'm just going to take it one day at a time. So spending a few days sitting here staring at you won't bother me. We'll go into town for cigarettes and beer occasionally, until you just go crazy."

Still nothing happened. I sat there for about a half hour before I spoke again. "At least tell me who you are. Even if you're hiding because you're afraid of the battles or just want a break from them. You Autobots are supposed to be friendly," I said. Then suddenly it happened. Something I'd said had pissed him off.

"Afraid!" said a deep growling voice that was full of menace. "Autobots! Wrong on both cases flesh bag." Then as he started to transform I saw the Decepticon symbol on his flank and knew that I was probably in trouble.

"I should have killed you the first time we met. You and your stupid mate Witwicky," he said as he morphed to his full height.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I've never seen you before." I watched in horror as he transformed again. This time he was a Mustang GT again but a Saleen model outfitted as a police car.

"Barricade," I said.

"Exactly," he sneered. I remembered that he was the first Decepticon I ever saw. He scared the shit out of me then and even more so now, but I couldn't let him know that. I still remember the fear we had as he chased Sam and me in Bumblebee that first time.

For a long time neither of us said anything. He just towered over me glaring at me with his LED lights flashing. Then suddenly he just sat down in front of me.

"Aren't you going to kill me?" I asked.

"Aren't you going to run?" he asked in return.

"What for?" I asked. "You'll only catch me and kill me anyway. Why die tired? Besides I can't outrun your guns. Go ahead shoot. No one will care about me anyway. I was only the girl sidekick. Sam was always the hero. He was the one who really wanted to fight and protect people and all of that bullshit. I was only along for the ride. No one ever took me seriously as Mikaela. I was always Sam's girlfriend."

"Exactly," he growled. "Megatron and Starscream never took me seriously either. When I fell in battle it's been up to me to put myself back together just so they can use me again in one of their stupid schemes. Even among the Decepticons unless you're gigantic or a flyer, you're just cannon fodder."

"So you're not going to kill me?" I asked sitting down myself.

"What would be the point?" he asked. "If I don't kill you, the first chance you get you'll tell the Autobots where I am, so I'll have to hide all over again. If I do kill you, when they find out and investigate your termination, they'll really be angry so I'll have to hide even more. Frankly I'm beginning to lack the motivation to terminate all of you insects. You just keep coming back and there are literally billions of you on this planet."

"Well you don't have to worry about the Autobots hearing about you from me," I said. "I'm kind of taking a break from all of that nonsense. I'm just trying to find my way, alone."

"Humph," he growled. "I'm alone too. Lately I've begun to question the wisdom of trying to take over a planet where there are a superfluous amount of resources to be had just by going and getting them. Megatron wants to be in charge and to lead. But what good does it do you to lead when no one will follow you? I just want to be left alone."

For another long time neither of us spoke.

"Barricade," I said.

"What Flesh bag?" he growled.

"If you're not going to kill me, could you take me home?"

He transformed back into the normal Black Mustang GT he'd been when I bought him. The door opened and I got in. Over the next few days we got used to each other. Barricade, unlike Wheelie, was not going to switch sides. He seemed torn. He no longer shared the goals of world domination that the other Decepticons had. He also had nothing good to say about Megatron or Starscream. But on the other hand he had no love or respect for the Autobots either. He considered himself a team of one.

He did ask for several mechanical components to speed his repairs and I bought them. Several times when I left the house and went somewhere he just pulled up next to me and opened his door and took me. "I'm not your fucking car," he growled each time.

"Nope, you're not," I said finally. "But you are my friend."

And we were. The two of us, both disenfranchised, disillusioned and slightly disturbed at the way things were going in the war. We had a lot in common. And everything went well until as you saw in the third movie, The War came to us in Chicago.

With Barricade's technology we were able to discern things that the average citizen could never find out. We were even able to pick up and decrypt some of Nest's own coded transmissions. Things were going to get bad around here before they got better.

Barricade received a special signal calling and assembling all Decepticons in the area. We finally knew and understood Megatron's plan. We were even more surprised when we learned that he was being aided by Sentinel Prime, who was not only a former leader of the Autobots but Optimus Prime's teacher.

"Megatron must really be desperate," ranted Barricade. "This is the second time he's had to rely on a turncoat prime to fulfill one of his stupid schemes. Can't he do anything on his own?"

"Aren't you going to report?" I asked.

"No. I'm sitting this one out. Megatron doesn't need my help to fail again," he growled. "Aren't you going to help your friends?"

"They don't seem to need my help either," I said. "I guess the thing that bothered me the most in the reports was hearing that Sam and his girlfriend were in the thick of things as usual. Sam and Bumblebee I was expecting. But I really thought that I was Sam's girlfriend. Hearing that he'd replaced me already did wonders for my lack of self esteem. Though I was curious about whom she was and what she was like, I had no great desire to see her."

"Why do you think he'll fail?" I asked Barricade.

"Because leadership and power are both lofty and singular goals," growled Barricade. "It isn't very often that two power hungry beings can share either one of them. Their alliance is a house of cards. All it'll take is a whisper or a hint to tear them apart and set them at each other's throats. Alliances formed in the dark of the moon rarely survive in the light of the day, Mikaela"

That was the first time he hadn't called me "Girl," or "Human," or the ever popular "Flesh bag."

Finally the battle and the destruction got so bad that it became obvious that we needed to leave. With a ring of Decepticons and military opponents ringing the city, getting out wouldn't be easy.

Barricade decided to scout the city in his Decepticon form since the Decepticons seemed to be winning. The idea was that Barricade would find a safer place to hide out or a way through the city and come back for me. I wasn't sure that he wouldn't either hook up with his Decepticon buddies or simply desert me at the first chance he got. I guess trust was something in short supply to both of us.

After waiting for far longer than the couple of hours I expected. I got a signal on my cell phone from Barricade. He was trapped, damaged and in trouble. He thought I should carefully try making my way out of the city before the trouble got worse. The fighting was very thick now and the Autobots who'd been banished from the planet were back and taking the fight to the Decepticons, but were vastly out-numbered. Their allies were hitting the Decepticons with all types of new weapons and he'd been damaged by a missile strike that hit him and several other Decepticons.

He was perhaps 2 miles to my northwest, freedom was to the south.

I shrugged my shoulders and headed northwest. There were several times when I had to detour or backtrack to avoid conflict. The first thing that popped into my head was how different this was than the way I did things with Sam. Sam always seemed to be plunging headfirst into the thick of things when far bigger, far stronger, far better trained guys waited or hesitated. That was only one of the things that made him so special.

Finally I found Barricade. Luckily he was still in his Decepticon form, so he resembled a police car, albeit a strangely outfitted one. The problem was that several parts including two of his wheels were missing. And he was pretty heavily damaged so he couldn't transform.

I started scavenging. A few yards away I found one of the wheels. I didn't have a lug wrench or any lugs to install it with or a jack. That was pretty stupid of me. I planned on breaking into another car hoping to find them after I located the last wheel. As soon as I got the wheel within range of the rest of Barricade the wheel flew out of my hands and attached itself to the rest of him.

A kid on a bike was rolling the other wheel away from me. I lit out after him and charmed him out of it. As I returned to the area that Barricade was in, an old man stopped me.

"Hey where'd you get that wheel?" he asked me with a funny look on his face. I sensed trouble so I started backing away.

After a few feet I ran into something. The largest Black man I'd ever seen was standing directly behind me.

"You guys shouldn't be here," he said in a gruff voice.

"I was just leaving," I said grabbing the wheel.

"Mikaela, is that you?" I heard a voice ask. I looked up and saw Robert Epps, his smooth cocoa brown skin and bald head gleaming in the sun.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked.

"She's taking things that don't belong to her," snapped the old man. "That wheel she has came off of a really weird police car that saved us from those things before the missiles hit them."

"Mikaela what's going on," asked Epps.

"I'm helping a friend," I said.

"Who's the friend?" he asked. "Does Sam know you're here?"

"Epps just let me do what I have to do," I said.

I grabbed the wheel and started walking away from them. I really thought that with all that was going on they'd forget about me and just let me go about my business. Seemingly they did just that. I heard a barrage of gunfire a few yards away and knew that they were involved in it.

I got the wheel back to Barricade and it attached itself as the other one had. I spent some time clearing most of the debris from on top of him and around him.

"Let's get out of here," I said.

"You need to go now," he growled. "There are energon readings getting closer and whether they are Autobots or Decepticons neither bode well for you. If they are Autobots they will certainly engage me. You might be injured if caught between us. If they are Decepticons they will attack you and without energon I cannot defend you."

Hearing that Barricade would defend me against Decepticons was a shocker.

"None of that matters 'Cade," I said. "We're getting out of here, together."

"How?" he asked. "I don't have the energon to move, much less to transform or affect repairs."

"Can you convert other forms of energy to what you need?" I asked.

"Yes, possibly it depends on the form of energy," he growled.

"How many car batteries would it take to get us out of here?" I asked.

"Perhaps ten," he growled. "But how can you get that many?"

"More importantly" came a voice behind us. "How can you get them before I blow his lily livered carcass to smithereens?" The last part sounded as if it was cobbled together from snippets of dialog from old John Wayne movies.

I turned to see Epps, a few other soldiers and Bumblebee.

"What the fuck is going on Baby girl?" asked Epps. "That is not one of ours."

"Decepticon," said Bumblebee in a voice from the TV news.

As the men behind Epps moved their weapons into position and Bumblebee readied his guns menacingly, I stepped between them and Barricade.

"Remember last time we did this, when Wheelie made the choice to leave the Decepticons?" I asked.

Before I could go any further a report came over the radio about Shockwave being seen near a building downtown.

"You're saying that this thing wants to change sides?" asked Epps.

"Nope, I'm saying that both he and I have decided not to pick sides, we both just want to live out our lives away from the war for a while, just like you did Epps."

He obviously had to go to help Sam and the Allies with Shockwave. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said. "What should I tell..."

"Don't tell Sam anything," I said. "Not even that you saw me."

"He's kind of busy trying to get his new friend out of danger anyway," he said. "She seems to be the type that needs to be rescued a lot. She doesn't have anywhere near your style baby girl, good luck." He nodded and headed off with his men towards the area where Shockwave was tearing up downtown. Somehow I knew that Sam would be there. It was all I could do to keep from running over there myself. But that wouldn't do either one of us any good. And all of the trouble I'd gone through to get him away from me would have been for nothing.

I gave a silent prayer both for Epps' safety and especially for Sam's.

"And you," I said turning towards Bumblebee. "You owe me one for that time with the tow truck. Now get over here." Bumblebee reluctantly put his guns away.

"He needs energon," I said.

Bumblebee moved over to Barricade and transformed one of his guns into a different type of device. He attached it to Barricade and then energon began flowing between them.

In a few moments Barricade while not as good as new was ready to roll. "Bee, the same thing goes for you. Don't tell Sam that you saw me. It's for the best."

"I am in your debt," growled Barricade. Bumblebee nodded his head in acknowledgement then quickly transformed and rolled out.

As Barricade and I left the city, I saw a group of people headed for the downtown area Sam was running in the front of the crowd as usual the first one to run into trouble. I noticed that she wasn't running with him. Whether from fear or injury or just that she couldn't keep up with him, I couldn't tell.

I was always right beside him. It made me remember something from our time in the desert. "Who else could be your girlfriend, Sam?" I'd asked him. Oh yeah, she was pretty in a weird big lipped, angular headed kind of way, but in the long run she wasn't a replacement for me as much as she was a placeholder. She was only someone to occupy a space in Sam's life until I came back to claim my spot.

"Let's get out of here Barricade," I said smiling. We had places to go and things to do.

"I'm not your fucking car," he growled.

"Nope but you are my friend," I said.

"Yes, Flesh bag, we are that." he growled. "But if you say Transform and roll out, you're walking!"

End of Report

For more on Transformers go see the movie.