Tinman

POWs

An hour after the capture...

Ironhide barreled down the country roads as fast as his engine could spin his tires. Panic, an often foreign sensation to the old Autobot, asserted itself violently into his mainframe. No matter how fast he plowed down the roads he couldn't seem to get to the Lennox farm soon enough. Something terrible had transpired; he could feel it in his cannons. It had to be Decepticons. No one else could've hacked into the Autobot communication channel and falsified Prime's voice but them. Somehow, deep in his Spark, hope tried to calm panic's stranglehold on him. Perhaps he wouldn't be too late? Maybe Sara and Annabelle were alright?

At last the farm was in sight and the black Topkick barely stopped before it exploded outward into Ironhide's bipedal form. The weapons specialist ran up to the house, cannons alive with blue and orange light. A jolt of electricity surged through his processors when he saw the broken front door, the horrible crack splitting the entire frame of the house, and part of the house was starting to cave in.

"Sara! Annabelle!" he shouted, not trying to hide the alarm in his deep voice.

Ironhide desperately wanted Sara to storm out and scold him for being so loud and then yell at him for not being there. He deserved it. But she never did.

Hurriedly, he moved around to the backside of the house and peeked in Annabelle's room. The sight made his Spark fluctuate. There were several holes punched through the outer walls which appeared to have been made from the inside. Annabelle's bedroom door was broken down and her room was in shambles.

"Annabelle?" he called.

Desperate, Ironhide effortlessly pushed his hand straight through the child's window frames destroying the glass and wood to pick up her bed and see if she was hiding underneath. Nothing. He made a distressed mechanical groan and turned from the house to the garage and the other buildings on the farm. Meticulously he searched, trying to find them. His search yielded no reward.

"SARA! ANNABELLE! ANSWER ME!" he thundered before crashing to his knees in the front drive.

The old Autobot felt as if his Spark had extinguished. He'd failed them. He hadn't been there to protect them and now...

A flicker of emergency lights vaguely caught his attention as Ratchet pulled in, letting Will out. The man ran through the gate into his house, calling for his family as Ironhide had done. Ratchet transformed and approached Ironhide.

The weapons specialist shook his head, not looking at him, "I failed them Ratchet."

Ratchet knelt down, gripping his truck shoulder, "That's not true, old friend."

Suddenly, Ironhide swatted the medic's hand away, his optics slit with anger, "Of COURSE it's true! I wasn't here to protect them! How could I be so stupid, leaving them alone like that?"

Firmly, Ratchet shoved his shoulder, "Stop talking like that Ironhide! You were tricked but it's not your fault!"

At once Ironhide's spark burned like acid and he stood up. "No...not MY fault."

His optics flashed dangerously as he surveyed the farmyard and the house under his intense scanners. Ironhide immediately spotted two sets of large footprints accompanied by two smaller sets—one bipedal, the other quadrapedal. In an instant he recognized the prints. Ravage...and the other small ones were Rumble's. Which meant the largest set of prints—

"Soundwave." the weapons specialist growled, turning his cannons. "He's the one who hacked into the communication line. That slagging piece of..."