Ep. 1.5 - Out of Element - [Closed]

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus was rather surprised to see a few individuals still hanging around the school well after the time in which most would have abandoned the area in favor of more entertaining things. He expected perhaps detention was let out early, but that seemed problematic as it meant there would be no adults there to pick up the children. It was also confusing why a punishment would be cut short at all, considering the individuals had slacked off or done other things to warrant being detained in the first place.

Once he came to a halt a reasonable distance away, he got a clearer visual on just who the children were. The pink tipped pigtails and rather bright attire, made spotting Miko an easy feat, she simply built herself to stand out amongst the crowd. The other three appeared to be the exact same bullies that had been chased off some time ago. They had returned to hope to seek vengeance upon Raf, only to encounter Miko instead.

He could only frown internally as Miko antagonized the bullies, and took on a stance that was undoubtedly taught to her by Bulkhead or Wheeljack. He was banking on it being Wheeljack, unless the tiny human had simply mirrored what Bulkhead had done. Optimus liked to think said mech would be too concerned over Miko's well being to truly teach her to fight, or... they could have viewed it as self defense, which in this case was what it was.

"Today is full of undesirable outcomes..."

This is all the Prime could even find to say on this matter, feeling useless all over again. It was just like when Raf was being bullied, but possibly even worse. While the individuals could push Raf around, the tiny human wouldn't really fight back hard and as such wouldn't be hurt more than perhaps a scrape or a small bruise. Miko fighting back, meant the bullies would try to fight back even harder to assert who was boss, and then that’s when the bruising and injuries could reach new levels.

Optimus let out a shallow ventilation only Jack and Raf would be able to pick up on, his frame settling down as he just had to give up and accept what was going on to some extent. He would likely get wound up again, try to throw together his holoform and try to compile a means to verbally get the bullies to back off, but for now he simply sat there.

[Deleted]

Both Jack and Raf stared across the school yard at the growing confrontation with wide eyes. Raf, for his part, just disbelieving at the turn of events. Was this really happening? What was reality? Why did everything have to go wrong when the Prime was the one nominated to pick them up?? They'd never had such issues when it was their respective guardians taking up the job!

"Optimus, I just want you to know...this never happens when Bee is giving me a ride." Raf carefully set aside his pile of books with the brevity of a older gentleman. He was nearly embarrassed by the turn of the day. If he was the type to believe the universe to conspire against them, he'd start to be suspicious.

Beside him, Jack just stared at Miko with his jaw slightly cocked open and thrust forward like he was grinding the joint. Which, he was. Of course Miko was about to get in a fight. She had all year long to pick a fight. And this was the day she chose! Did she do this on purpose?? Was she mad Bulkhead wasn't available to pick her up? What? Why?!

"...I'm going over there." Jack placed his hand on the door, intent on opening the Prime up and going over there to grab Miko by the scruff and drag her away. He was stopped by Raf's hand hovering just over the sleeve of his shirt.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Jack." Adjusting his glasses, Raf drew himself up straighter in the seat. A clear sign he was about to drop some knowledge bomb that Jack didn't really want to hear right now. "Chaz is clearly agitated. It's not stretching disbelief to argue that he has heard about his older brother and the unfortunate incident at your work."

"..and?"

"And it would only escalate the situation if he were to recognize you or place you at the location." Raf mumbled. And dadgummit, he was right. Either of the three frequented the burger joint and could put two and two together. (Well, ok, might be a strain on Blaine's primitive pig brain. But Chaz wasn't stupid.)

"Ok. If I can't go over there, and you definitely can't go over there...that means we're left in the capable hands of Miko..." Both of the boys winced at the thought. "...Maybe you could just drive over the three of them and away really fast. I'll lean out the door and grab Miko." Jack joked, his tone too serious to deliver the punchline.

[Optimus Prime]

It figures that this sort of stuff never occurred when others came to pick up the children. It was always his luck that when he had to take something into his own hands, it either went perfectly, or rolled into cascading failures and bad luck that painted an ugly smear in his memory. This was going to be one heck of an unpleasant recollection. It would be a reason for him to trade said duty off to another in the base, or if unavailable possibly consider contacting June to do so.

It was a good thing Raf spoke up when he did to halt Jack, as Optimus was just about to state his own protests to the idea. Getting another looped up in such chaos, was not going to end well for any involved. The fact of the matter was that something needed to remove the fuse from the bomb, before it detonated and caused a larger issue for everyone involved.

He has played passive far too long.

"Jack, move to the center."

It was a calm request, spoken in a decisive tone while unseen eyes locked down onto Miko and what she was doing across the way. He had ignored Jack's attempted joke or suggestion entirely. It was only once the human got off of the driver's seat to stand or kneel between the two spaces in the front cab, that light started to block up in his place, folding in upon itself in areas, and flickering active in others. There was audible noises while this was triggering, a whirring clicking as it worked on finishing up the final calibrations that he had started earlier this day already.

After a moment, the shape of a male human was sitting in place, stance ridged and overly mechanical in a way, while cleanup calibrations and alterations were being applied. Bands of light shuddered across its form, blocking in details of skin and fabric that had looked like flat plastic for a moment into a far more in depth texture with color discrepancies natural to the material being replicated.

The human had squared features and broad shoulders, settling somewhere between the age bracket of late thirties early forties. It had dark hair that was cut short in a style that really wasn't notable in any way, and in fact nothing really about the Holoform screamed anything recognizable or distinguished. It was a lot of standards, a lot of what was first plucked from the program with some clothes that vaguely reflected some of his frames colors. Dark jeans, a black t-shirt, and a dark red coat where applied to the figure, completing the look and pulling it slightly away from defaults.

Once the Holoform was fully fleshed out, the lights no longer jittering across its frame, it seemed to break away from the ridged stance, and look down at itself. A hand raised, flexing fingers somewhat experimentally, to make sure some horrendous glitch didn’t trigger and break the projection.

As little as he used this program, it seemed once he had it set up, it was solid, and there were no indicators that the individual was nothing but an illusion in place. The system worked so well, that there almost appeared to even be a depression in the seats to mimic a weight that was not there.

Optimus lifted his helm head to look out of the front windshield, peering to try to get a bead on where Miko was since he lost her for a moment.

[Deleted]

Not to put any pressure on Optimus, but Jack and Raf were staring at his holoform like he'd made a tentacle monster and not, say, a regular human. Raf's eyes were starting to rival the size of his glasses and Jack looked like he'd just been spooked. It was very, very strange seeing the leader of the Autobots with a human guise because the two kids were so used to seeing Prime as...well, the Prime. Seeing him in any other type of window dressing just felt wrong. Like they'd entered an alternate universe.

"I think next time I'm going to take the bus," Jack quietly said while Raf leaned around the older boy to continue his unblinking stare of the holoform. The amount of awkward in the cab of the truck was reaching Everest levels.

Outside and across the yard, Miko seemed to be perfectly at ease with the imminent beat down she was about to face. The three males had flanked her, showing some form of brain power between them. The larger one took the lead and advanced on her with single minded determination. The kind that said he was just fine with punching a girl. One had to wonder what his home life was like.

"Dudes, you're seriously going to regret this. I'm not kidding! You really don't want to-" The rest of Miko's words were cut short by the press of cold metal into her back. She felt behind her and found the cool bars of the swing support blocking her retreat. She was effectively barred from further retreat.

Instead of looking upset by this, she smiled.

Blaine took the lack of retreat as fine time to haul a fist back and send a crude, if not brutally effective punch right for her face. Instead he found the metal bar she'd been blocking. A quick duck to the side had effectively let the bullies' hand crash unchecked into the steel with a resounding (and painful) meaty crack. Nearly everyone, including Jack and Raf in the cab, winced with muted horror. Miko just winced in some semblance of sympathy. A split second later Blaine started squalling like a pig caught in a snare.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus anticipated there being some kind of reaction from Jack and Raf, but the awkward levels skyrocketing as high as they did had not exactly been what he expected. The human form turned to peer over at them, a calm expression clashing with their silent alarm as he tried to study and figure out just what was going through their minds. He was going to consider a proper response to Jack's statement, perhaps a bit frustrated internally that Jack would rather take the bus than be picked up by him, but he didn’t have a chance.

Blane suddenly learned the boon of keeping track of environmental elements.

The cracking snap of the fist colliding with the metal beam, really should not have been heard as far as they were, but despite this it somehow defied all expectations and managed to do so. The holoform of the Prime pulled back slightly to look out at Miko and the others in a very subdued wince. He eyed the outcome for only a brief moment before he pushed open the side door and stepped out of the cab.

Everything about the projection seemed to be in line, and nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The human walked around the front hood of 'his' truck, in order to get a straight line between himself and the four individuals a short distance away. While he was calm and at ease in his approach, he did decide to make his presence known while doing so, not trying to step lightly in any means. If any of them had any semblance of spatial awareness, they would hear him, and if not? They would know for certain once he spoke.

"I suggest you see to that injury and cut your losses. This fight is ended, now."

Optimus spoke with his normal air of authority and calm power, not finding any threat in the three teens. He did feel bad for the one that had injured himself, but frankly there was nothing he could do for such an injury other than encourage them to seek aid elsewhere. It wasn't like if it was broken he could try to set the bones or anything, while Miko made commentary in the background to try to instigate another fight.

[Deleted]

The fight was all but drained from the oafish kid. Cradling his arm to his chest, he was valiantly staving off tears by sheer willpower alone. Even if his lower lip quivered. The other two were wavering on whether they should jump in the fight, berate the girl for being smug, or retreat and collect their losses. The arrival of the "adult" swayed them to sullenly guide their partner in crime away all while shooting venomous glares at Miko over their shoulders.

Miko had drooped at the sound of the Prime's Stern Dad Disapproving voice. "Aww, man. I had everything under contro-whoa!" She had turned mid-sentence and got an eyeful of his holoform. It just wasn't...what she had expected. Her unending stare proclaimed such very loudly. "Ah...that new? Wait, never mind."

She waved her hand and looked toward the proper him parked in the lot. She could just see Raf's poof of hair sticking up over the console like an old man trying to drive a vehicle far too large for his shrinking body. Jack was giving her the evil eye from fifty paces. Fairly typical there. The only thing was, she didn't think she was too blame at all! She had't picked the fight. And speaking of!

"You know Raf's book bag is up in a tree?"

[Optimus Prime]

Thankfully the bullies had a better mind than to try to take on what they perceived to be an adult, and as such departed. Optimus was not looking for a confrontation more than what has already occurred, especially on such a day that had progressed down such unfavorable lines. Trying to deter a physical confrontation ((when he himself didn't have much of a tangible form in which to counter it)) would be problematic on many levels. The last thing he needed was for some rumors of a 'ghost' or other superstitious nonsense to come about because a wayward fist slipped right through the imagery.

Watching the trio slink away like wounded animals, Optimus held his ground enough to make sure they weren't going to find their courage a few paces away and try anything. Once everything was finally cleared, he finally peered back at Miko after the female's complaint mutated into a shocked noise.

Did he pick something wrong? Why were all three of the children alarmed by the choice in Holoform? It made him curious what they imagined it should be, more so than what he picked out on whim. What would they have imagined he would look like if he were to take on a human illusion now was a pressing question, but not one he'd really push to explore... especially with her follow-up commentary.

"Yes. We are very much aware."

Ahh yes, returning to the dry tone, returning to unamused flatness. The reminder of the book bag punched out any amusement or curiosity and replaced it with a newfound feeling of frustration and uselessness. He would need to see about getting a proper Holoform later, so that he could just 'step out' and deal with puzzles of this sort on his own, rather than relying on juggling the children around and orchestrating a 'rescue'. Granted... he hoped this situation wouldn't happen again. That was a problem for Arcee, Bulkhead, or Bumblebee traditionally.

Walking back towards the truck... or rather... himself... Optimus peered over at the book bag in the tree momentarily, knowing he could just jump and snatch it down if he had a tangible projection. Out of the three however, Jack was the tallest, and should ideally be able to reach, hence why he spoke to the teen as well once within range to be heard.

"Jack. Would you be able to retrieve said book bag so that we can be on our way?"

[Deleted]

To Miko, this situation was falling under one of those "don't ask" things that adults seemed to get themselves into. She was never going to be like. She was fairly certain that when she reached adulthood, she was going to be sooo much better than every adult she'd met thus far. Except for Bulk. And Jackie.

With a sigh she headed for the tree to see about Raf's book bag. Of course Prime was going to ask Jack to get it down. Like she couldn't just scurry up there and fish it out. It was understandable that Raf couldn't. He was kind of shrimpy on the best and days and she wasn't certain he knew how to climb a tree. To be fair, she hadn't really climbed all that many before. It wasn't like her hometown was bustling with trees ready for climbing. There were a few in the parks and shrines, but most tended to frown when you started climbing nearly century old wisteria...

"You know, I could just-" she was cut off by Jack hopping down from the rig. He had given her such a look. She only ever saw that one on the detention teacher's face. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

"It's a long story," Jack dryly said before eyeing the offensive bag dangling from the tree limbs. "Should be easy. I could just climb up and stretch out on the limb..." He squinted at the tree, gauging how much that limb could actually take.

"Um, that's a negata-tive, dude." Miko was squinting at the base of the tree at a colony of bugs. "I'mma little rusty on my bug science skills but aren't those fire ants?" She pointed with a finger, hovering close enough above them that the antennae of the nearest few flicked and their pinchy faces turned upward.

From out of the cab, Raf peeked up and around the open door, leaning out just enough not to fall. And then, just barely. The shorter boy wouldn't admit it, but he was inwardly fretting that his book bag was going to get infested...

[Optimus Prime]

Why him?

Why?

What did he do to deserve this?

Was this payback for helping continue a war for centuries?

Was this just some cruel trial from Primus to keep him in line?

Optimus' holoform stood beside the truck/himself, and merely blankly looked over at the two children with a subtle quiet air of disdain and resignation. As a Cybertronian, reading his expressions may not have been as easy to them as it was with the human façade he was using at this moment. His eyes seemed so tired and dead, while lips were pressed into a thin line as if holding back on saying some less than ideal phrases at the book bag that spited him so.

His gaze settled up at the offending object wordlessly, before looking around the area. There were no branches he could see that could lengthen the children's reach and permit them to knock the bag down, and the chairs and benches that were part of the school were seemingly chained. Because of COURSE they would be chained down... What kind of act of cruel fate would it be for them to be loose to be used for this dilemma?

Calm down.

Optimus took in a slow breath, leveling himself out again. He had to look at this critically. The book bag was not obtainable through climbing the tree, less the children risk falling, or being bitten badly by insects, both of which were not on his day plan. Exterior means of raising their height or reach were not viable, since their species would not be strong enough to push around a large enough rock. This means that the only thing they could really climb as a boost would be himself.

"If I were to position... the truck... beneath said bag, would you be able to reach it?"

He altered his words just in case there was an off chance of someone nearby listening. There wasn't as far as he could see, but it was always better safe then sorry.

[Deleted]

(OOC: Permission granted for mild power playing.)

What followed was a good solid minute of back and forth borderline bickering between Miko and Jack about who should get the bag. Jack only won because Prime had specifically asked him to fetch the item. Even if Miko pointed out that Jack was hardly that much taller than her and hadn't dedicated nearly enough time to climbing on the Bots as she had. That last comment earned her a good side-eye from everyone there. To which she promptly shut up.

While they had been fussing, Prime had moved closer to the tree for Jack to climb on top. By the fidgety looks the teen kept giving the massive hood of the truck, he was more than a little hesitant to use the leader of the Autobots as a stepping stool. It just felt...wrong. Kind of like Prime's holoavatar. Everything about this was just wrong. This whole evening needed to be over with and how.

When the leader was in place, Jack got a boost up from Miko and slowly climbed his way onto the hood. Every time his sneakers made a squeak on the paint job he cringed both internally and externally. The very real urge to say "sorry" ever few seconds was there in his throat just waiting to pop out. But he felt that'd make things infinitely worse.

Once at the crest of the hood, Jack straightened up. From this high up, he really could reflect that Optimus Prime was really very tall for a truck. A mild frown pulled at his mouth. Maybe Miko should have been the one to do this. While he wasn't afraid of heights, he was certainly not comfortable. Miko had a devil-may-care attitude that kept small worries from distracting her.

Taking a deep breath, he stretched his arm up and reached for the bag. Luckily it wasn't that far from his grasp. His fingers wrapped around the strap and, with a triumphant grin, he yanked at the prize. And received a shower of leaves for his trouble. The branches firmly held the bag in place.

"What the..." With a crease in his brow, Jack tugged harder until the limb bowed. But it refused to budge the backpack. The branches scratched over the material and sounded like the bag itself was complaining, but it didn't come free. "This is ridiculous," Jack muttered.

A few solid more tugs pulled more leaves and small sticks down upon Miko and Prime but the bag stayed. This was going from comical to downright ludicrous. Jack just stared at the bag for a second, feeling his frustration and resentment grow. He was already tired, hot, sweaty, and wanted nothing more than to go home and get a shower. But this stupid bag was just right. there. With a growl, Jack latched onto the bag with both arms and used his body weight to tug it down...

Unbelievably the bag held his weight and he hung above the top of the truck by a few inches just swinging in the stale air.

"...Wow, that-" Miko's words were cut off when the entire side of the small tree connected to the branch gave way and toppled Jack, the bag, and an avalanche of dried twigs and leaves down upon everyone. Poor Raf was swallowed up by the barrage of limbs, paying the itchy price of being a bystander. The Prime would likely get more than a few twigs and leaves stuck in his grill and the loss of paint was almost an evil afterthought by the tree.

[Optimus Prime]

The bickering was ignored. He knew whatever he would say would probably be brushed aside as mere suggestion, or would further churn up resentment for one another given the subject. This wasn't some favoritism in play, and it most definitely was not meant to come off as such. Jack was only chosen because of his height advantage. It would not matter if Miko could climb better than him or not if she couldn't even reach the bag to begin with once scurried up onto his hood.

The holoform walked back to the truck, to maintain the façade of a human that owned the vehicle. He took care in making everything look legitimate, and all things considered it truly did. The way the door opened with the false figures pull upon the handle, and the way the truck seemed to slightly move as if new weight was applied to the steps as he ascended. After a moment, the illusion was upon the driver's seat, and the truck was put into gear to be driven beneath the bag once more.

Optimus was about to try to trigger the false start to the transformation sequence again, in order to push his front bumper forward to create a step, but it seemed the children had things handled, as Miko assisted in getting Jack that extra bit of reach needed to get a grip and climb up onto the hood. He didn't mind or really even notice much as the sneakers squeaked across the metal, for it didn’t concern him at all, keeping quiet.

The need to keep quiet however faded when Jack was literally hanging off of the bag. The Prime was just about to speak, letting Miko get in her words first, before everything went wrong in a fraction of a second. The first thing he noticed really was the fact Jack had hit down onto his hood with a hard thwump. If he were a normal truck, one of earth design and manufacture, than the entire hood would have probably been dented in from the impact. Given that this was not the case, what would have been a crushing blow, was instead just a meager dent, but a dent nonetheless that was followed by a myriad of scratches.

Branches scraped down his front, grating off small streaks of red to reveal grey metal beneath, while leaves and twigs rained upon them in a sudden downpour. The debris got tucked into all the nooks and openings in the vehicles design, some flicking up through the grill much to his dismay. As much as the sudden impact and scratches may have bothered some however, Optimus has endured many punches, gun blasts, and sword slashes in his life, rendering this only on par with bumping into something while not paying attention, but while he wasn't alarmed from pain, he was alarmed by the possible injuries the children could have obtained.

"Is everyone ok?"

He asked hastily, trying to actually see where each of them ended up. He didn't know what he would do with himself if one of them got seriously injured by the half tree that had fallen upon them.

[Deleted]

"Yeah...I'm ok." On Prime's hood, Jack lay sprawled, his legs dangling off the side, with the bookbag safely in his arms. He was covered in detritus from the tree but otherwise seemed ok. Just shell shocked into silence. There was a sickly leaf stuck in his hair right above his forehead. For the moment he was keen on just staying put.

Underneath the weight of the broken tree movement rustled the branches. Suddenly, Miko popped out from between the limbs with as much aplomb as a dancer jumping out of a cake. On of her signature hair poofs had come undone and the colorful mess was full of twigs. But she was more worried about what may or may not have been on her. With a slapping, twitchy rub at her arms, she dived away from the mess and shrieked something about ants. Once her panic was over, or Prime offered a cursory scan, he'd find no ants actually on her. The thought of them was enough to insight panic in the usually unflappable Wrecker.

The other part of the trio was crawling out from under the majority of the ugly foliage. Raf's hair was askew from it's normal gravity defying upsweep. His glasses hung askew from his face and, but for the grit covering his clothes, he seemed just fine. Spooked, but in good health.

"I'm ok," Raf mumbled while brushing himself off. Now, more than ever, did he wish he'd just spent the evening in study hall. "Can we go home now?"

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus scanned around himself trying to discern exactly where the children ended up in case he had to move in order to get a branch off of someone. He would have to be certain EXACTLY where they are though before trying that, less he roll over someone, and at that point he might as well just roll off a damn cliff because that was absolutely unacceptable.

It was during his scans Jack spoke up, who was rather easy to find since the teen was still lying uncomfortably on the dent he had just created. Miko was next to chime, who seemed unharmed save for an... odd psychological reaction to the possible presence of tiny insects. He could understand the concern if ants were truly venomous, or posed a legitimate threat to her, but... as it stood that was quite an odd sight to see someone so reckless and uncaring suddenly dancing around in fear. He did offer a cursory scan however, for it was the least he could offer to put her mind as ease.

"There are no ants on you Miko."

He said this dryly, his own mental exhaustion able to be heard, before he was checking for Raf who had the greatest chance of being in actual trouble. After a moment the tiny human spoke, giving him relief while also dealing out some sadness to the Prime.

Hearing that Raf wanted to go home now, instead of going back to the Omega Outpost to hang out ((as the children tended to do)) was a bit of a gut punch in a way. If this pickup had been successful the three would be there playing videogames or whatever it is they liked to do. Probably laughing and having a good time. Granted Jack's incident would have still occurred, but the downtime and relaxation with the others could have helped smooth over things.

Instead he had failed so readily that it seemed they didn’t want to adhere to normality, they didn’t want to see the others, and they just wanted to part ways and go to their respective homes instead. While Miko and Jack didn't readily express it as Raf had, with how out of line this all had gotten he would not be surprised.

Annoyance, resentment, frustration, it all bled away to quiet reservation and defeat.

"Load up. I will take you home."

[Deleted]

Safely nestled back into the crowded confines of his cab, the three kids had settled down into quiet fits of sulking. For all of a mile. While the Prime started off on their destination, Raf had begrudgingly given in to the urge to take a peek at his homework. The peek had ended with him fishing out a pencil from the book bag. By the time the Prime was on the main road, he'd already cracked open the books and was working his way through trig.

Miko and Jack were squeezed in side by side and sharing a seat belt. Which was normally fine, except Miko was still itchy from her encounter with the tree and occasionally started rubbing at her arms and legs which further annoyed Jack. His only distraction was to quietly point out the detailed and nice interior of the truck they were in. Which, unfortunately, drew Miko's attention to the radio.

What followed was a very quiet, subtle game of keep away between the two. Every time Miko reached for the radio knob, Jack would nudge her hand away. When that failed to deter her, he jostled her with his whole body. She jostled him back and resolutely reached for the radio. Given her preferences, nobody wanted that to happen. So Jack deflected her hand with his own. She countered by pinning that arm with her own and reached with the other. Jack had no choice but to slap that hand away. The sound was surprisingly loud against the hum of the road and the scrabbling of the pencil. Miko's gleeful laugh was even louder.

While the two continued their increasingly silly, and oft times acrobatic game, Raf peeked up from his work to look out the window while pondering cosines. His train of thought halted when he recognized the street they were on. His relaxed face frowned, just a little, as he turned to look at the steering wheel.

"I thought we were going home?" His question brought Miko and Jack out of their limb tug o war.

"Hey...what are we doing in the 'burbs?" Miko cringed, like the suburban sprawl was going to rub off on her and envelope her mom pants and a mini van.

"I'd really rather just go back to base if it's not too much trouble, Optimus." Jack slumped back against the seat, halfway squishing Miko. Possibly on purpose. "If I have to explain what happened to mom, she might not let me out of the house for another week. Let me savor the freedom."

"Yeah, and I want to tell Bulk about how I totally sacked three bullies!" Miko punched at the air, nearly hitting Jack in the shoulder. Most definitely on purpose.

"You didn't take on three guys. One tried to hit you and nearly broke his hand," Jack retorted, too tired to be snappy.

"Yeah, because I'm awesome."

"So, can we go home?" Raf, ignoring the other two, quietly pleaded with the steering wheel.

[Optimus Prime]

Optimus drove in silence. He had nothing he wanted to say, nor had anything he COULD even say to accompany the retreat to the children's homes. He had failed this evening, and while he could not let it drag himself truly down, it still bothered him. At least he could say that he succeeded in helping get the book bag for Raf however, but then again... in doing so he was thanked by a dent on his hood and a myriad of small scratches across the front of his alt-mode. The 'injuries' hardly warranted such a title, more akin to a couple tiny scrapes and a minor bruise if that, but they were still there in the end.

During the silence, he kept watch on the trio with the 'corner of an eye' while driving, making sure they were ok. He was not particularly suppressed Raf was diving into his studies already, the boy seemingly devout to such things, and he was not particularly shocked in the slap fight. Perhaps he would traditionally tell them to cut it out, or that such actions weren't necessary during a dispute ((While he was hypocritically always brawling the antagonist of his own disputes)) But the laughter from Miko was a welcomed noise, and he didn't wish to systematically cut away even the most trivial of fun after such a rough afternoon.

In regards to said fight, Optimus was thankful of Jack actually progressing the lighthearted spat the way he was, instead of putting his foot down and yelling for Miko to cut it out ((or anything that would propagate animosity)). It kept the mood lighter, while also keeping the girl away from the radio. If Miko won though, that would be when Optimus would have to finally step in, because he wasn't really going to cope too well with... shriek metal blaring essentially inside his head.

All in all, he just continued in silence before he was addressed.

Raf speaking up was not particularly expected all things considered. He believed the child would be too engrossed in his work until they got to his home, but instead, he had piped up with confusion and a question that made the Prime's mind scramble frantically a moment. This was where Raf lived, they were near his home. This wasn't Jack's neighborhood, or Miko's, it was indeed Raf's, but yet he was asking a question that contradicted this, made it sound like he messed up.

Optimus didn't say anything. He KNEW he was correct in location, yet the human was confusing. In response to this, and the newfound squabble between Jack and Miko, he rolled to a gentle stop in front of a random home, so that he could find out what was going on before progressing further. He could understand Miko and Jack wishing to go back to base somewhat, but to hear Raf speak again of what he considered 'home'?...

"Of course."

Understanding now what was meant caused him to bleed away what was left of his frustration for the moment. It brought with it a sort of warmth that the children found that much joy and security at the base that they would designate it with such a title. It meant a lot even if his tone of voice didnt show it, and as such the Prime went back into gear and pushed off into motion once more. He moved past Raf's literal by description home, in order to get to a street in which he could turn and head to the metaphorical home.

If given no new protests or a change of heart, they would be out on the open road in little time.