𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 ━ transformers

𝙾𝙽𝙴

The first time Ironhide heard (and saw) Eleanor Cambridge was when he was escorting the two humans-Major William Lennox and Colonel Owen Cambridge-back to their respective homes.

Lennox was in the passenger's seat while Cambridge took up the driver's seat-a precaution should anyone catch a glimpse inside the tinted windows of his cabin. Ironhide veered through the back roads of Washington and cursed Optimus for his soft spark. Truly, taxiing the humans around was not something he wanted to do, but Optimus felt as though the Autobots owed them that much.

Ironhide thought it was all scrap.

But he took them home anyway, and he listened because that was all he had to do. Lennox was distressed, and Cambridge annoyed.

Humans and their petty emotions, Ironhide internally sneered. Such a weak race.

"Owen, you've been AWOL for months now!" Lennox exclaimed, throwing his hands up and hitting the window. "She is bound to be angry at you!"

Cambridge scoffed. "I think I know my own daughter better than you do, Will. You'll have to excuse me if I don't agree."

For a moment, Ironhide considered muting his audio receptors and driving in peace, but, if he was honest, this conversation perplexed him. He did not know whom the femme that they were speaking of, but Cambridge claimed her to be his daughter? Ironhide was unfamiliar with the term.

Perhaps it was some sort of pet. Maybe a rodent like the one Sam Witwicky had.

"You promised her, Owen. Said you would write every time she sent you a letter."

Not a rodent then. Last time Ironhide checked, rodents did not send letters.

He took a turn and tried to halt his confusion. He did not think he would ever understand Earth, and he did not know if he wished to find out the secrets it held.

A quick search through the internet informed Ironhide that a daughter was really not a pet. It was a person, in fact.

The definition said: A girl or woman in relation to her parents.

Ironhide figured he was supposed to have knowledge of what a daughter was-Optimus had made them acquaint themselves with the wonders of Earth long ago. But Ironhide, even though he acquired the English language (plus a bunch more) did not do much research into it. To him, gaining knowledge on a race that was so weak and destined to fall was foolish. He did a thorough enough job for Optimus, though.

The two continued their little bicker back and forth, and Ironhide could feel his helm aching from it. He wished Optimus would have driven these two fleshlings home-their incessant chatter was becoming quite the nuisance.

A name was mentioned throughout it, though: Eleanor.

Ironhide thought it meant something since Cambridge choked up saying it. His processors were trying to comprehend what emotions the human was feeling.

There was sadness and bitterness. A deep coiling anger that felt searing in the cabin.

Ironhide pulled up to the houses just as it was starting to pour. Great. More rusting.

"Thanks, 'Hide," Will said gratefully.

Ironhide grunted in response. He had nothing more to say to these humans. Truly, he wished to leave, but Prime had made him promise to overlook their homecoming and make sure nothing of disarray happened.

Load of scrap, but Ironhide will bite.

Cambridge patted the steering wheel and hopped out of the car, along with Lennox. They walked into their respective houses. Ironhide detected one life form coming from the home Cambridge walked into and two from Lennox's.

They had a sparkling-a daughter-Ironhide noted with a glitch. It was much too tiny to be acceptable as a warrior, but given time it shall rise through the ranks and follow its father's footsteps onto the battleground.

Thunder boomed in the distance, and Ironhide lost track of how long he'd been there when another life form ticked on his sensors.

It was a femme-about seventeen or eighteen Earth years-and she was hurriedly running towards the house. Ironhide's senses went into battle mode, and he was about to eliminate the threat when the human ran into the house of Cambridge, as though she were seeking shelter.

Ironhide had momentarily forgotten that humans have a weakness for cold, wet things. Their systems of immunity can only handle so much before they are destroyed, and the human is left with a deadly sickness.

(Or maybe it wasn't a deadly sickness-more like a common cold. Ironhide hadn't had the time to look up the correct term for it, either way. He will stick with deadly sickness for now.)

The femme sauntered in the house, and Ironhide's sensors were picking up some odd readings on her. She seemed to be malnourished-not too much to be endangering but enough-and there was some structural damage in her spine and vertebrae. It was affecting the way she walked.

Ironhide wondered how such a race could be created with such weak ligaments and bones. It was truly uncanny.

Being stationary was not one of Ironhide's favorite pastimes, but he figured that Optimus would not be too pleased should he return to the base suddenly. He sat in the drive for Primus knew how long before a tick picked up in his sensors again.

It was that girl again. She was slamming her way out of her house and wiping at her face with harsh strokes. Ironhide could sense her hostility, followed by a mute, yet still decipherable, hurt. It radiated off her body in waves.

The girl had dirt-colored hair that stuck to her face in wet ringlets. She glanced at Ironhide's alternate form, and his sensors acquired that her eyes were the color of Earthen grass. Why humans had a variety of eye shades was beyond his comprehension. He tried not to dwell on the irrelevant details too much.

His audio processors picked up the sounds of her crunching her way through the drive, the footsteps hurried and angry. But she paused at his alt form for some moments, as though taking it all in. Ironhide could almost feel the apprehension bubbling up in her-the fear of the unknown sitting right in the drive of her neighbor.

He did not like that uneasy feeling. Or the way she felt it so. . . . strongly.

The fleshing continued her journey, and Ironhide paid her no second thought. He idled in the drive until Prime commed and said he was needed-along with Cambridge and Lennox.

Ironhide did what needed to be done, called upon Cambridge and Lennox, neither seeming to be too pleased about getting torn from their respective families so soon, but nonetheless, and he swerved out of the driveway, the Earth girl a wisp of a memory in his processors.

(No one mentioned the fact that Colonel Cambridge had lubricant leaking out of his eye sensors. Ironhide believed this to be normal for humans.)