Disclaimer: Transformers is property of Takara-Tomy and Hasbro. I'm just borrowing it.

Ratchet completed the fake hardware with a little more than an hour left before Barricade's deadline expired. Optimus and Ironhide loaded the fakes into a semi trailer, and Optimus transformed and hooked up to it. A second trailer full of the demanded gasoline was hooked up to Ironhide after he transformed.

"Okay, load up!" Lennox ordered his men. When Stephen and Carly approached one of the army trucks with the intention of boarding, Lennox stepped in front of them. "I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Witwticky, but where we're going is no place for civilians."

"My son is out there in the hands of some demented alien robot. I'm damned well going to make sure he gets turned over safely," Stephen declared.

"Perhaps I can propose a compromise," Ratchet suggested as he knelt down beside the quarreling humans. "It will be my duty to get Daniel away from the combat zone as soon as we have made the exchange. Mr. and Mrs. Witwicky may ride with me and I will keep them out of harm's way."

"I'm okay with that," Lennox agreed. He knew better than to argue with Ratchet's ability to protect the Witwickys.

"We'll do it. We'll stay with you, Ratchet," Carly agreed on her and Stephen's behalf.

"If they get to go, we get to go too, right Bumblebee?" Sam asked.

"Stay… Hold the fort," Bumblebee said with a shake of his head.

"What do you mean?" Mikaela asked.

"I won't risk Sam and your safety unnecessarily, Mikaela," Optimus' voice rumbled out from his truck form. "You, Sam, and Sam's parents will remain here with Bumblebee as a rear guard in case the Decepticons attempt to hit the farm while we are gone."

"Well, if we're the rearguard, can we have a couple of those grenade launchers?" Ron asked.

"That's fair," Lennox said as he tossed two M32 six-shot grenade launchers to Ron and Sparkplug, and then a box of extra rounds to Sam. "Those are 40mm magnesium-tipped sabot rounds. They'll kill a Decepticon if you hit a weak spot, and they'll do damage even if you hit an armoured spot. Just don't miss because you don't have a lot of ammo."

"Got it," Sparkplug said.

"If that is all?" Optimus asked and got nods from everyone. "Autobots, let's roll out!"

The gas station on Route 9 was overgrown with weeds and grass. A single dead tree stood between the roof over the derelict gas pumps and the road. The Autobots pulled up, but remained in vehicle form while the human soldiers made a firing line behind them. Barricade and a second Decepticon stepped out from behind the gas station. The unfamiliar 'con was light grey with three massive blades for fingers. A large Gatling gun protruded from his chest and missile pods sat on his shoulders.

"Here's the boy. I trust you have everything I asked for?" Barricade asked as he held Daniel aloft.

"Give the boy to me, Barricade," Ratchet instructed while popping open one of his doors.

"I think not. I'll put him here in this tree until the exchange is completed, just so I can keep an eye on him," Barricade said as he put Daniel down roughly on one of the dead tree's limbs, just next to the trunk. "Now, detach from your trailers and give me 10 meters of space." Optimus, Ironhide, and the soldiers did as demanded. Then the grey Decepticon transformed into a V-22 Osprey.

"How did you get to Earth without detection, Incinerator?" Ratchet asked.

"That's for me to know and you to wonder, Autoscum," the Osprey chuckled. Barricade pushed the trailer full of gasoline into Incinerator's cargo bay and then stepped away so Incinerator could take off. Then Barricade transformed into his car mode and sped down the highway while Incinerator used his electromagnetic grapple to pick up the trailer and flew off with it.

"Ironhide, get the boy out of the tree," Optimus instructed as he transformed. Before Ironhide could act upon his orders, there was a loud crash and Incinerator sped back into view without the trailer. The V-22 let loose with several shots from his rocket pods, which were situated under his wings in vehicle mode, destroying the trucks that Lennox and his men had come in.

"They figured it out!" Lennox said as he started to fire at Incinerator. "Epps! Blow it!"

"Burn, baby, burn," Epps said as he flicked the switch on a detonator that he had in hand. 250 grams of C4 stuck to the underside of the gas-filled trailer within Incinerator's cargo bay exploded, taking the 400 liters of gasoline with it. A massive fireball burst out of Incinerator's cargo bay, blowing the back ramp open. The grey Decepticon banked way and fled the scene as fast as he could, trailing smoke.

Meanwhile, Barricade came tearing back up the road and fired a plasma blast at the tree. Ironhide transformed and fired off a missile that went through the base of the tree, knocking it over so the plasma blast missed, and continued on to explode just in front of Barricade.

"Daniel!" Carly screamed as she kicked open Ratchet's passenger side door and ran for her son. Barricade transformed and jumped over the explosion from Ironhide's missile, then continued towards the fallen tree at a run, intent upon killing Daniel in revenge for being double-crossed. Dodging most of the incoming Autobot and human fire, he loomed over Daniel and Carly with his gyro-flails spinning and was about to slice them to bits when he suddenly fell over.

"What the pit!?" Barricade demanded, only to discover that the bolts connecting several key struts to his right foot had been removed. He roared in fury, but recognized that he was now outmaneuvered and outgunned, so he transformed back into his car mode and retreated.

"Would someone please explain what just happened?" Ironhide asked.

"I, uh, borrowed some tools," Stephen said as he popped out from behind the trunk of the fallen tree. "I spent one of my summers touring oil rigs with my Dad during high school and I got pretty handy with an impact wrench," He said hefting the tool in his hands.

"So that's where that got to," Ratchet mused.

"I'm pretty surprised that Decepticons use standard metric bits sizes, but I had to try something," Stephen shrugged.

"Well I think you were wonderful," Carly said as she gave him a big kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah, that was pretty cool, Dad," Daniel was forced to admit.

"And your wife will never look at you like that," Epps quipped to Lennox, "Because you're not allowed to take her in the field with you."

"I know, I know. It sucks to do this for a living instead of just for fun," Lennox said with mock disappointment. "Optimus, can we hitch a ride with you guys?"

"Certainly, Captain Lennox," Optimus replied.

"It's going to be a squeeze," Ironhide muttered as he transformed back into vehicle mode.

When the Autobots and soldiers returned to the Witwicky farm, they noticed that a section was missing from the side of the barn. Bumblebee, Sam, Mikaela, Ron, Judy, and Sparkplug came out of the barn to see if everyone was alright. The sight of almost 2 dozen soldiers, Stephen, Carly, and Daniel spilling from Optimus Prime, Ironhide, and Ratchet was quite like that of clowns getting out of a Volkswagen.

"Bumblebee, report," Optimus ordered after he transformed.

"…Having a slight malfunction…Weapons misfire…" Bumblebee quoted in response.

"What were you doing? Showing off?" Ratchet demanded before transforming and fixing Bumblebee with an icy glare. Bumblebee waved his hands in front of his face and pointed at Ron.

"Uhm, Will, thanks for letting us borrow the guns. There were very, reassuring," Ron said as he hastily handed his grenade launcher back to Lennox.

"Well, it's your property damage, if you don't want to tell me what happened, I'm not going to worry about it," Lennox said with a shrug.

"Oh, you're going to hear what happened," Judy said. "My genius husband was fiddling with the grenade launcher, looking for a safety switch or something, when some animal knocked over one of the old milk cans. Just about jumped out of his skin and pulled the trigger while he was at it. Did you know that those say-bo things will set wood on fire? Anyway, Bumblebee pulled the burning section off the barn and stamped out the fire."

"Yup, no more heavy weaponry for Buster," Sparkplug said as he handed back the second grenade launcher. Sam turned over the box of extra ammo.

"Excuse me," Carly spoke up over everyone else. "I'd just like to say thank you to all of you. Thank you so very much for saving my son."

"Yes. Thank you," Stephen agreed.

"Yeah, thanks," Daniel said hesitantly. He was extremely unsure of the friendliness of these unfamiliar giant robots. On the other hand, there was little way they could be worse than the two psychos he had spent the last couple of days with.

"You are welcome," Optimus said on behalf of the Autobots. "It is my hope that we can forge lasting bonds of friendship here on Earth despite, or perhaps because of, whatever harm the Decepticons attempt."

"Well, I'd say you're off to a pretty good start," Sparkplug replied.

"Oh, shit," Daniel said, suddenly remembering something. "I still have to do my homework! My teacher is never going to believe that I was abducted by aliens for the weekend, even if I do have a note from the Army!"