Battle Wounds → Transformers

Introduction

One year. It's been one year since my life was changed and a lot sure has happened since then. After the battle that left Hong Kong in ruins and after Optimus had left Earth, life for me and my family started looking up. That night, Gracie, Jason, my dad, and myself, along with the Autobots, left China and returned back to America. My sister had somehow been contacted by one of Joshua's men and they had informed her on what had happened. When we arrived at Joshua's private KSI air base in Washington DC, my sister was there waiting for us.

That night had been excruciatingly long. My dad and Jason had left me and Gracie to deal with my all too anxious baby sister. About five hours of the trip back to Chicago was spent answering all of her questions. I remember feeling sorry for Bee when she referred to his kind as 'dirty street sweepers'. Although, it had taken me and Gracie the better part of six hours to explain the entire dilemma to her, after a while she started understanding it better. She eventually apologized to Bee who just whirred at her.

After arriving in Chicago the next morning, we had met up with Joshua. He explained to us that he had bought a house for us, which was located about a mile outside of the city limits. To say it was a beautiful home would be an understatement. It had three stories and a massive in ground pool out on the side deck. There wasn't really much out back. It was just a lot of green grass and a medium sized shed. .nothing major. Out front, there was a five car garage for the Autobots and a huge courtyard. The house was also surrounded by a tall security gate. Although, it wasn't tall enough to completely hide the Autobots from view if they were to transform, the large oak trees around the property made up for it.

At first, my dad had refused Joshua's offer. He whined about how it was too much and that he couldn't possibly accept it. Joshua responded by telling him that he only had one catch for the house; he wanted my dad to come work with him at KSI as a Co-Founder and as VP of KSI's InfoTech department. My dad gladly accepted the offer and we moved into the house that night.

Joshua had given all of us twenty thousand dollars each so we could replace all of our belongings that we had lost back in Texas. Why he was giving us so much, I didn't know, but I sure enough wasn't complaining.

A week after we got settled, I managed to actually finish school and get my diploma. Gracie had left to go back to Virginia three days later. Her parents had been worried sick about her, but after everything was explained, they calmed down a little bit although they weren't particularly thrilled about their daughter almost being killed by alien robots in another country. They agreed to let her visit again as long as we didn't run off to a foreign country to get killed without their permission.

That December, I turned nineteen. My family and the Autobots threw me a very heart warming yet also unnecessary birthday party. Gracie and her family had also flown in to celebrate with us. I didn't think turning nineteen was quite a huge deal, but I'm almost certain that the extravagant party had something to do with the fact that I hadn't had an eighteenth birthday party due to the fact that I was still in a funk from my mom passing. All in all, it had been one of the best birthdays ever. Just being with my family, my best friend and the Autobots made it all the worth while.

Over the past year, I've grown immensely close with my little Bumblebee. You could say that aside from Gracie, he was my best friend. Lynleigh and Hound are practically inseparable as well. Their personalities were so alike, which is kind of a bad thing, considering that whenever they're together they become trigger happy. One time, Lynleigh accidentally let off one of his missiles and it came inches away from blowing up the house. After the almost deadly encounter, Crosshairs ended up confiscating all of Hound's weapons and hiding them somewhere on the property. Jason had become really close with Drift over time as well. He had been teaching Jason how to 'fight like a samurai' and it was quite amusing to watch my older brother flail around the front yard in an attempt to look tough.

My dad was holding up nicely. His position at KSI made him about ten thousand dollars a week. I don't know how one company could manage that much money, but I wasn't complaining. It put food on the table, and clothes on my body so I was perfectly okay with it. Him and Joshua were practically like brothers now, and I had grown so accustomed to him being around that I began referring to him as 'Uncle Josh' which he didn't seem to mind at all. Like he used to, my dad works every day during the week though he has the weekends off. He seems as happy as ever, although sometimes I'll catch him outside at night gazing at the stars with a sad smile plastered onto his face. I knew he still missed mom and I knew that he even missed Optimus. He had saved our lives after all.

Sometimes, I thought about the very humble Autobot leader. I thought about where he was in the galaxy and his well-being. I wondered if he was okay or if he was hurt. I wondered when we'd see him again or if we'd see him again. On that day last year, it had saddened me to watch him leave, to listen to him say goodbye to us, not knowing if we'd ever see him again. We owed him. We owed all of them. Without the Autobots, we wouldn't even be here today, and I was forever grateful to them for that.

Life for us was going well. We had a home, we weren't broke anymore, we were safe, and most importantly, we were together. Nothing and nobody could ruin that.