Prime: Whatever It Takes

A Detour

"Optimus, I don't know if I wasn't clear enough," comes Major Lennox's voice, who stands next to Emilia now, the large ship in the air. "We are going to Shanghai. Do you know what that means? We're on the fastest ship there and we won't be there till late tonight and not back home until tomorrow morning. I'm going to be on the ground, I won't be able to babysit." He glances over at Emilia. "No offense."

"Only a little taken," she admits. "I can take care of myself, I've been on the field before."

"Not like this you haven't. It is insanely dangerous to have you here, which is why I asked specifically not to bring you."

"She's going to start college in two days," Optimus says in a rough voice. "She has planned to spend those days with me, and I was not expecting to have a call to China. Bear with us."

The Major lets out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Alright, fine. Have it your way."

Emilia smiles, glancing over at Optimus. She puts a hand on the side of his hood, and it purrs under her skin.

~~~~~~

"My little spark," comes the gentle sound of Optimus's voice. Inside of his truck lay Emilia, stretched across the drivers and passengers seat. Her arm was tucked under her head and her hair covered her face. She stayed in the sky while Optimus and the others fought down below, against a large Decepticon that stood no chance against Optimus Prime. Within the two years of meeting the Autobots, new ones have come in attempt to make Earth their home too.

The blonde stirs slightly at the sound, and the seat begins to vibrate beneath her. "I'm up," she groans, pushing her hair out of her face and sitting up slowly. Rubbing her eyes, she sees they're in front of the military hangar where the Autobots are able to stay.

"You have to get checked, don't you?" Emilia yawns a bit, already reaching for the door to step out.

"I will see you inside," the leader tells her. "Lennox is on his way to you now, go with him. I will bring you to your college afterwards, I promise."

The blonde smiles, leaning forward to press a kiss to the steering wheel before stepping out of the large truck. As he drives away, she can see Lennox jogging to her.

"You're in so much trouble," he teases her, his hand moving to ruffle her hair.

"Oh shut up," she laughed and pushed him away.

"How'd you get Optimus to let you come, anyway? How did you get your parents to agree?"

"Bold of you to assume my parents agreed," Emilia giggled a bit. "I just asked nicely and promised to stay away from the fight. Like he said, I've only got so much time left before classes start. I need to spend it right."

"Oh, I remember when I was young," he laughs, though glances over her shoulder. The short girl turns, seeing a man in a suit coming towards them.

"This'll be fun," she mutters.

"Present arms!" The man says, walking for the hangar behind them.

"Director Galloway," Lennox says, motioning Emilia to keep up as he turns to follow the man. "What an honor. I'd love to show you around, but you gotta be on the classified access list."

"What, you think I'm not and she is?" He motions to the blonde, who frowns. "Presidential order, Major. I got a message for your classified space buddies! You guys made a mess of Shanghai."

The Major shakes his head, but continues further into the hangar, where the Autobots are getting scanned for any marks from the previous fights. To their left, the Twins are getting new car models.

"Em's here!" Mudflap proclaims, waving at her.

"Man," Skids shakes his head. "Should've seen us! We kicked the shit outta some Decepticons!"

"I saw," she nods with a grin, following the two men up a flight of metal steps to where computers sat. Here, they could be eye level with the Autobots.

"General," Lennox says to a monitor, to which the image of General Morshower appears. While we was Lennox's boss, he couldn't properly run how things went with the Autobots.

"I saw your Shanghai op," he says.

"Yes, Sir. We had a rough day, but I have some intel that may push that to the side. Now, with your permission, I'd like you to hear from the leader of the Autobots, though you cannot see him."

"Go ahead."

Emilia glances over, seeing Optimus driving towards them. Once in front of their platform, he transforms in front of them, causing the girls smile to grow a bit.

"General," he speaks, lifting his hand slightly in order to give himself comfort in being closer to Emilia. Knowing she was there, her small delicate hand holding onto his large metal one, somehow made him feel more confident. "Our alliance has countermanded six Decepticon incursions this year, each on a different continent. They're searching the world for something, but last nights encounter came with a warning."

At that, a recording of a scratchy voice rings sharp to everyone's ears. 'The Fallen shall rise again.'

"The Fallen," The General nods. "Means what?"

"Origins unknown. The only recorded history of our race was contained within the Allspark and lost with its destruction."

"Excuse me!" Galloway butts in, to which Emilia rolls her eyes. He stood further away from them, a the bottom of the stairs. "With this so-called Allspark now destroyed, why hasn't the enemy left the planet like you thought they would?"

"He's a new guy," Emilia explains to Optimus. "Overly annoying, he has a paper that-"

"Excuse me," his voice comes in again, and he's heading up the steps. "After all the damaged that was done in Shanghai, the President is hard-presses to say the jobs getting done. Now, under the classified Alien-Autobot Cooperation Act, you Agreed to share your intel with us, but not your advancements in weaponry."

"We've witnessed your human capacity for war," Optimus responds. "It would do more harm than good."

"But who are you to judge what's best for us?"

"Maybe because he's the one that knows how the Decepticons work?" Emilia says sharply. "Or that he knows what happens when weapons fall into the wrong hands?"

"Oh, the small one speaks, wonderful."

"Easy," Optimus warns him.

"Don't tell me there's actually something happening here, is there?" Galloway looks between the two and lets out a short, fake laugh. "Oh, you're kidding. Jesus people, can't you see that these aliens don't know what they're doing? They're manipulative! We can handle this on our own. Thanks to us, Megatron is at the bottom of Laurentian Abyss, and the Allspark in an electromagnet vault!" He turns in a full circle, his eyes landing on Emilia, who has her teeth gritting together. "They're not here for us. They're here for the Autobots. And these guys try to play with our feelings and make us think that we need them when really, if they left, we'd be all better. Don't worry, little girl," he hums. "We can get you some help. You're probably covering in oil that we can't even-"

There's a smack of skin, and Galloway's backing away suddenly, holding his cheek. Emilia has swung a punch and hit him square in the jaw. The small girl was holding her hand, wincing in pain from the hit.

Almost automatically, Optimus scoops her into his hands, bringing her to his chest. "Before you or your President make any decisions," the leader says in a low voice. "Ask yourself this: what if we leave... and you're wrong?"