Until We Next Meet

Chapter 1

I waited impatiently for Cade's signal. I could see the crashed ship, but there was TRF everywhere. One wrong move and we were all in the scrapheap for good.
"Wait, kids!" Cade suddenly exclaimed through his walkie-talkie.
I swore under my breath and crouched down lower under the roof of the building I was hiding near.
Four kids, they were heading straight for the ship.
"Whoa!" one exclaimed.
"Is it dead?" another asked.
"Nah, bro. It is definitely definitly dead," a third replied.
"H-hey, guys! I-I think it's moving," the fourth said.
There was a robotic growl and all four kids panicked, falling off the roof of the ship.
A TRF bi-ped gun robot thing stomped over.
"You are trespassing on TRF property," the robot said mechanically,"Please step out calmly and surrender."
"Hey!" someone shouted.
I turned my helm slightly to see a young girl, probably barely in her teens, spinning two Sprite bottles from on top of a pile of wrecked...stuff. I dunno what it was.
She now had the robot's full attention. It began clanking towards her aggressively.
The girl threw the bottles and the machine fired at them, shooting another TRF machine as it did so.
When I looked for the girl again, she had disappeared.
When she did appear again, she grabbed the other kids and told them to follow her.
I noticed a tiny blue Cybertronian bot wrapping a cable around the first robot's legs. He was shot and his arm came off, but he accomplished his mission and the robot collapsed and died down.
I had lost sight of the kids, which worried me.
"Cade," I whispered into my comm,"I'm going after the kids."
"Don't do anything stupid, Orchid," Cade warned.
I smirked and turned off the comm,"I might."
I transformed into my smaller bi-ped mode, which was about the same height as Tessa.
I followed the kids' footprints to a pile of rocks. I knew they were under there, from the sounds of voices.
Suddenly the whole rock pile shifted and a large Autobot stood up. He had been protecting the children, and exposed me to them as well.
A boy grabbed a rock and threw it at me.
I caught it easily in a servo and tossed it up and down.
"Who are you?" the girl asked.
"Name's Orchid," I replied, dropping the rock,"and you need to get out of here."
"I agree," the large Autobot said before lumbering off.
"That's Canopy by the way," the girl pointed out.
I nodded,"He's loyal to you. Have you been friends long?"
"None of your business," the girl retorted, stalking past me.
The boys gave me a wide berth, they were more wary of me than the girl, or if she was, she hid it well.
"So, you're a...tiny Transformer?" one boy asked, he was slightly overweight with brown skin and curly dark hair.
"Not usually. I can get bigger when I want to," I replied.
Somebody pulled my hair and I whirled around to see a pale boy with ginger hair and glasses. He held up his hands.
"I-I just wanted to see if it was real!" he stammered.
"Warn me next time," I said,"Being hunted puts us on edge."
"Yeah? Well maybe you should just fly back to whichever planet you came from," another boy sneered.
I gave him a freezing look,"As if now, we have no method of transportation. So, we cannot leave."
"Then why won't you leave us alone?" the same boy asked.
"Because they have no home," the girl piped up,"They're scared and homeless do you know what that feels like? No! Because your a**es got big old houses to go to."
The overweight boy shook his head,"We got a condo."
"Ssh!" the girl hissed at him.
The ginger boy leaned over to the overweight boy and whispered,"I love her."
"Heard that," I said, making him jump.
Suddenly a missile flew out of nowhere and hit Canopy. He spun and nearly landed on the girl.
I pressed my comm,"Cade, now?"
"Now!"
I transformed to my full size and attacked a TRF robot that was advancing. I stabbed it with my staff and flipped it over my helm to slam it against the ground. It was now definitely dead.
I turned around as Cade showed up in his truck. He took a couple bags out and told the kids to get in.
The girl was crying near Canopy's body. The missile had killed him. She obstinately refused to leave his side, but Cade managed to pull her away.
Once the children were safe, Cade pulled out a gun he had designed himself (with a bit of my help) and fired at yet another TRF robot.
Bumblebee leapt out of hiding with his femme-friend Kamicazii and brought the poorly designed robot to the ground in a matter of a few seconds.
I went with Cade to drop the kids off at the edge of the property.
"Wait! You're that guy!" the overweight kid suddenly exclaimed.
"No I'm not 'that guy'," Cade replied.
"You're the guy who saves Transformers. They said you're just a legend," the kid continued.
"Some legend," the girl scoffed,"You were too late."
"Not everybody can predict what is to come," I explained softly, but firm enough to show I would have no argument if back-talk.
"You know there's a reward for turning you in right?" the kid kept blathering.
"Really?" Cade asked.
"Yeah!" the boy replied.
"Cool. You wanna get punched in the face really hard?" Cade asked.
The boy frowned,"N-no."
"Good. Now go," the man ordered.
The girl was the last one to crawl through the hole in the fence,"See ya around...legend. Squeeks."
The little blue robot rolled past me, chirping to the girl.
******************************
Later, Cade and I went back to the ship. Cade planted a C4 and detonated it to break the tough glass before climbing in.
I held onto Cade's rope as he slid in next to a large green Cybertronian.
The Cybertronian had a spike deep in his one shoulder-plate, just barely puncturing his right half of his chest-plate. In addition, he had suffered much damage from the crash.
Cade took out a ratty old sweater and tried to stop the energon flow, talking quietly to the mech the whole time.
The mech seemed to be trying to explain or warn Cade about something. He eventually opened a small compartment over his chest and pulled out a small round object.
"The talisman...will protect you," he managed to say.
"No you don't owe me anything," Cade declined, gently pushing the mech's shaking servo away,"You keep it."
The mech noticed me and spoke to me in perfect Tibaksi.
"Beware...of Quin...Quintessa."
My optics widened in surprise. Nobody had ever spoken to me in Tibaksi before.
Eventually the mech closed his optics and sighed weakly.
"Cade, you've done what you can," I told the man, carefully pulling him out of there.
Cade sighed and pulled out his walkie-talkie,"He didn't make it, Bee. Me and Orchid are comin' out solo."
He put the device away and sighed again,"This is getting to be one s***** a** day."
It certainly didn't help when an entire TRF force showed up.
Cade and I put our hands...servos...in the air in surrender. I knew the plan, so had no problem or worry.
About a majority of the men had their guns trained on me. The others were focused on Cade.
A tall, skinny man with a beard and mustache approached the man.
"Where are they? The others you're hiding," he asked.
Cade shook his head calmly,"I don't sell out friends."
"'Friends?'" the man scoffed,"This is an invasion. One day we wake up, they're in charge."
"You see anybody in charge?" Cade asked,"They just keep falling out of the sky. Something's coming and you can't shoot your way out of it."
Right on cue, Bumblebee and Kamicazii appeared, only to both be shot into pieces by TRF cannons.
"What was that?" the man asked.
"That was a mistake," Cade replied.
Bumblebee's helm, whuch was right by the man's leg, suddenly snapped out a little claw thing and grabbed it tight.
Kamicazii and Bee literally pulled themselves together, causing lots of damage to the TRF armada.
"Next time you shoot someone, don't turn around 'till you're sure they're dead," Bee told the man, picking up his helm and clicking it back on, dropping the man before pressing his cannon to his chest.
"Shoot them!" the man shouted.
"I'll burn you so bad you'll wish you'd died as a child," Bee threatened.
"Hold your fire!" another man shouted.
"Shoot! Shoot!" argued the man under Bee's cannon.
"Hey, lower your weapons!" shouted a familiar voice.
It was Lennox. However, no matter how glad I was to see him, I kept a stony face-plate and spun my staff threateningly.
"You!" Lennox pointed at Cade, who was aiming his gun also at the man beneath Bumblebee's cannon,"Drop your weapon!"
"I'm not droppin' s****," Cade retorted, not budging.
Lennox sighed then looked at Bumblebee,"Hey, things aren't supposed to be like this, Bee, you gotta believe that."
Bee pointed his cannon at Lennox, but I could sense the hesitance in his movement. Bumblebee wouldn't kill Lennox if he wanted to, but if he had to...well...let's not think about that.
"It's a new world order now and these guys are calling the shots!" Lennox continued, unfazed.
Just then Hound arrived, an hour and a half too late.
"Boom yeah! Hound's in town!" he bellowed,"Sorry I'm late. My invitation to this a**-kickin' musta gotten lost in the mail."
"Me and my crew are rolling outta here," Cade told Lennox, finally putting away his gun,"Let's go. They're not gonna touch us."
Hound and Bee threw taunts at the men as we left, but I zoned out. I just couldn't wait until we got home.