When We Seared The Sky

Chapter 24: Epilogue

Epilogue

Rule the World

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us."

- Iris Murdoch

It was a beautiful summer day in Tranquillity. The scorching sun burned down from the clear blue skies, throwing the grassy field into golden glory as the rays touched the ground and warmed the armour of the six vehicles parked beneath it. Blinding light reflected off their painted bodies and made the seats inside of them so hot to the touch that they would burn the skin of any unsuspecting passenger.

The sleek Camaro let out an expulsion of air in a contented manner as quirky, summery music played from the radio. “This is the life,” Bumblebee sighed, enjoying the feel of the air conditioning inside of him. “I love this planet.”

“Primus, where are they?” a grouchy voice complained, ignoring his comment. “They got outta school half an hour ago.”

A colossal Peterbilt semi rumbled gently. “They will be here soon, Ironhide.”

Indeed, the anticipated voices came sooner than they thought – they soon saw the small figures rushing through the meadow towards them, all screaming and shouting to each other excitedly as insects and airborne seeds floated around their heads. Sam Witwicky was the first one to make contact with them directly – he threw himself onto the hood of the Hummer, positively insane with excitement as he thrust a piece of paper towards Ratchet’s windscreen. Ratchet jumped in surprise at his movement but inspected the sheet.

“Look at that!” Sam yelled, his eyes round with joy. He stabbed at the text with his finger. “Freaking A- in calculus! That’s all down to you, Ratch’ – I freaking love you, man!” He bounced up and down excitedly on the hood, and Mikaela suddenly appeared too.

Draping her upper body across the front of Ratchet’s hood, she beamed at the windscreen. “Ratchet, transform so I can give you a hug!”

“Get off me, boy,” Ratchet sighed in agreement, and Sam slid off of him obligingly. All of the gathered vehicles began to transform then, and the humans were suddenly surrounded by their robotic friends, who looked down at them as they ran around in circles, shrieking and hugging each other and jabbering madly about their results. Mikaela and Sam promptly threw their arms around one of Ratchet’s legs each, and he raised his optic ridges. But… he could not help but allow himself an affectionate smile. “Let me see then, Mikaela,” he said to his charge.

She smiled proudly. “They’re not… amazing,” she admitted, “But all things considered, I think I did okay.” She handed him the miniscule slip of paper and he held it up, scanning it carefully with his optics. Sam, in the meantime, was still jumping around excitedly and had run over to Bumblebee to show off his grades.

Ratchet looked over the letters printed beside the names of the subjects she took – they were a mixture of A, B and C, but he was delighted to see that the A appeared three times, and all the others were B but for biology. “This is wonderful, Mikaela!” he said sincerely and she smiled bashfully. “Congratulations, my dear.”

“Thanks,” she laughed. “I’ve got to say, I was expecting to do crap… but you guys helped us out so much.”

Upon their glorious return from the battle, the teenagers had realised with some horror that their Finals were mere weeks away. With the assistance of the Autobots, particularly Ratchet and Optimus, they had undergone the most intense course of revision they had endured – Sam had spent days in isolation with Ratchet improving his algebra and math, whilst Mikaela and Carlos had fled to Optimus for help with their history revision. Even Ironhide had lent a hand, agreeing to help Rad with his biology.