Gosh DURN this site has had so many updates!

I just spent an hour and a half trying to open up this story because my computer likes to be a retard whenever it opens up this fic. Only this one; I don't get what's wrong with it. I'm trying to get this mess DONE. There's probably about two chapters left, maybe a third if I want to write an epilogue.

xXx

Chapter XVIII

"Jazz!" Daniel threw down his rifle and ran over to the large white mech. "Jazz, speak to me! Say something! Wake up!" It was no use. Jazz was down for the count.

Henry ran over and inspected the robot's body. "I don't see anything. There's a small dent in his head, but that's about it."

"Something probably attacked him," Daniel muttered. "You think it might've been a Decepticon?"

"What else could it be?" But they had not heard the sound of gunfire, or any kind of brawl going on outside of the house. Whatever had surprise attacked Jazz did its job efficiently.

"Oh man, we're going to die!" Andrew cried. "I'm too young to die! I haven't even learned to play the guitar yet!"

"I didn't get to go to Paris!" Mary whined.

"Guys, just be quiet!" Foster said, hushing them. "No one's going to die, especially not like this! I'll be darned if I let my brother and sister die under the dinner table!" He crawled from Mary's grip and stood up. "What about our prayers, huh? All of us asked for protection and you know dang well that God's going to protect you! If you don't think He will, then I'll do it myself! Now come on, let's go and see what Henry and Daniel are doing." He held out his hand and helped Mary out from under the table first. Andrew crawled out by himself and ran to the open door. He saw the two adults inspecting Jazz and knew something had happened. He ran over to them, asking what had happened.

"Jazz took a blow to the head," Daniel growled. "Some freaking Decepticon might have done this to him. That's the only logical answer."

"Ugh…" Jazz's optics dimmed online and looked to the starry sky. One minute he was reporting to Optimus Prime, the next he saw what looked like Soundwave over in the field. Then nothing. Did that 'bot just shoot him in the head as soon as he looked? Whoever it was, whatever they did, it all was going to come down to one thing.

"Are you alright, Jazz?" Henry asked, looking over.

"I'll be fine, man…" he groaned. "We gotta get everyone outta here. They all know where Foster is, so they'll be comin' soon." He tried to stand up, but the blast to his head made his vision all burred and disproportionate. He made it to an upright sitting position before his head started to pound. "Man, there must'a been a rock in that shot…"

"Andrew, go get Mary and Foster. We're moving out now," Daniel ordered.

But Andrew did not need to go inside. The two small children were already on the front porch and knew what they had to do. Mary went off to the old silver Cadillac while Foster went and got the keys. He tossed them to Henry, in which Daniel and snatched them out of his hand.

"Jazz, are you staying here?" he asked.

"Yeah. Someone's gotta keep th' big ugly punks busy for a bit."

"Suit yourself. We're going to Andrea's house. We'll see you whenever." All of the Dawsons got into the car and drove away down the dirt path. Foster turned around in the back seat to see Jazz get up and shrink in the distance.

"Stay down, Foster," Andrew said, pulling his arm. "What if a Decepticon sees you?"

"They're coming anyway." His optics shot open wide. "My sword! Daniel, we gotta turn back! I forgot my laser sword!"

"Shit…" Daniel muttered under his breath. "Foster we can't turn back now."

"There's still time! We need that sword!"

A low rumble had vibrated the entire car and the three kids in the back started to whimper. Henry looked all around and finally saw what caused the sound. Above them, high in the sky but close enough to the ground to disturb someone's sleep, was a black spaceship.

"I'm only taking a wild guess here," he said almost sarcastically, "but I think that's the Decepticon's."

"They're going after Jazz!" Mary whined. "Now we have to turn back!"

"Mary, we'll get killed!" Daniel shouted. "Jazz said he'd handle this!"

"Uh, not with a whole entire spaceship of bad alien robots!" Andrew argued.

"We're not turning back! We won't survive! We can't even help Jazz if we tried!"

"Well I can!" Foster stood up in the seat, still being smaller than the actual seat. "I built a weapon that was meant to protect all of us, even this planet. We can go back now, I'll get, and I'll help Jazz fight off the Decepticons so you guys can go and be safe at Andrea's. And I promise not to trash the barn!"

Daniel pulled over to the grass and stopped the car. He turned in his seat to look at the little green robot.

"Are you sure about this, Foster?" he asked.

Foster smiled. "Absolutely."

Daniel gave a sigh and turned the car around. "Foster? I just want you to know, if I never see you again—"

"You'll see me again."

"I mean 'if', son."

"And I'm talking 'when.' I haven't made any plans on dying tonight."

"Just be quiet and listen for a bit, you little brainiac. If I never get to see you again… I want you to know that I'm very proud of you. You're like another one of my children to me and I don't want you to forget that."

"I know."

Daniel stopped the car in front of the house. Jazz had managed to stand up, but kept his hand on his head. He looked at the car and thought What the heck are they doing? I told 'em ta get! Foster crawled into the front seat onto Daniel's lapped and hugged him. Immediately he hugged him back.

"I'll miss you, dad," Foster muttered.

"I'll miss you too, son."

The little sparkling moved on to give Henry a hug too. "I'll miss you too, Uncle Henry."

"Same here, midget. Kick some tailpipe for me."

He giggled. "I promise." Then he crawled into the back seat to give his siblings a group hug.

"I love you, Foster," Mary said, on verge of crying.

"You'll always be my little brother," Andrew said, sniffling a little.

"And you guys will always be in my spark." He opened the door and jumped out of the car. He waved goodbye to them as they drove away. The brother and sister turned around to wave, Henry stuck out his arm from the window, and Daniel honked the horn twice in farewell.

"The slag're you still doing here, kid?" Jazz said. "I told you to get on!"

"Don't curse at me, I'm a baby!" Foster laughed as he ran into the barn to get his energon sword. The dogs, Bud and Kenny, were still inside. When they heard all of the noise that was going on outside, they huddled together into a corner of the barn with the horses. When Foster opened the door they recognized those glowing optics and ran over to him as if nothing at all was going on and he was there to feed them. Foster shoved them away, telling them it wasn't time for treats, and grabbed the small handle off of the work bench. The dogs followed him outside and ran to Jazz, who tried to keep as still as possible so he would not step on them.

"Get these things away from me; they're gonna get squished!"

"They'll run away once the ship gets here."

"So that's what yer here for? Foster, they're military! You're just a kid!"

"A very smart kid with his own sword that he built himself!" the child said matter-of-factly. "The others will be safe without me; I would've just brought the Decepticons over to Andrea's house."

"You're riskin' a lot comin' out here, champ."

"Just like my dad."

Jazz smiled for a split second then looked as the black ship became larger, getting closer to the farm. It stopped just over the town and he could see pods shooting out in different directions. Two of them were headed straight for the farm. Jazz grabbed the sparkling and ran to a safe distance before the two pods came crashing into the dirt; one of them had grazed the top of the house. The pods opened up to reveal one flier and another that seemed to be both ground and air skills.

"So this is the little Prime that was able to fend me off," said the flier.

Jazz held up his gun aiming straight for one of the wings. "Starscream."

"Octane, deal with him," the Seeker said with a sneer. "I've got the sparkling."

The triple-changer beat his fist into his other palm, challenging Jazz to a hand-to-hand combat. The white sports car gave a nod in agreement and ran off into the field to keep the fight away from the buildings, leaving little Foster to have a go at the Decepticon second-in-command.

"Where's your family, weakling?" Starscream growled. "Did they leave you behind? They must have known we were coming, after that punch to the head Soundwave gave that annoying Autobot."

"They're where you can't get to them," Foster said, the top of his optics slanting towards the middle of his face. "They're safe now."

"Oh, are they?" Starscream laughed. "The Nemesis is hovering right above the middle of that pathetic excuse of civilization and you think they're safe? Ha! That's the worst possible spot to be in!"

"Better than being here with a cocky femme."

The insult was so unexpected and so hurtful to Starscream that he actually took a small step back. Foster grinned like a little devil, knowing he had Starscream's full attention on him instead of the Dawsons.

"How dare you!" the Seeker roared. "You will pay for such rudeness!" He aimed a null ray at the green 'bot, who was not even bigger than his own foot. Foster acted quickly and ran right towards Starscream. The Seeker, surprised by this action, had kept walking backwards and firing downwards at Foster. The child was fast and ran right past in between Starscream legs and veered to the left before Starscream tripped and fell backwards onto soft dirt. He growled, stood back up, and looked around for that annoying little pest.

"Come out, you coward!" he screeched.

"I'm not hiding!"

He turned around. Foster's color had changed to blue and his optic were now grey. In his hands was a small sword made of light. The sword slashed across Starscream's right cheek and he moved back to protect himself. He lifted a hand to touch the wound and a purple fluid was leaking out. This child, a sparkling, had landed a blow before he did.

"How dare you!" the jet screamed. He wanted to fire immediately at the child, but as he put up his arm the little robot disappeared. "Where are you, you sniveling wretch!"

"You've got a whole thesaurus of name calling, don't you?" Foster's voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere. Starscream was spinning around in circles trying to find the damn sparkling.

On the other side of the property, Jazz and Octane were basically destroying all of the crops. They were pretty matched, but as the fight dragged on, the triple-changer gained the upper hand and Jazz was taking a brutal beating. If Jazz had even lifted his gun up once, Octane would push it to the side and kick the white mech right in the jaw. This Decepticon had a lot of power in him.

"Where's the rest of you Auto-scum?" Octane chuckled. "You're boring me to death here! I want a challenge!"

Jazz stayed on the ground, on his hands and knees, trying to circulate air through his system, give himself a little rest if he could.

"Not talking, huh?" He kicked Jazz again in the face and the officer went backwards into the air and landed on his side. He knew triple-changers were strong, but dang! This one must have been working out extra hours in training.

The Decepticon walked over to him, grabbed the white mech's head, and lifted him up. "You're pathetic," he spat and dropped him back down to the ground. Jazz was not sure if he could really move any more. He was bruised and beaten and scratched and dented just about everywhere. The only thing he did to Octane was probably graze his shoulder. He really wished that Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots would get here faster.

Daniel was probably going about eighty miles an hour trying to dodge all of the Decepticon troops in town, and all of the civilians. He was about to put up his hands and tell everyone to just get out of the car and run, but their best chance of getting away was to drive. Once or twice they were almost crushed by a Cybertronian foot, but managed to get away just before the impact. The sounds of explosions and screaming kept Mary cuddled into a ball, crying and praying that they would make it out and that Foster would be okay. Andrew kept looking out the window at all of the chaos going on. He hoped that if any Decepticons destroyed a building it would be the school. Henry was panicking and trying to help Daniel navigate the car at the same time.

"Look at all this crap!" he shouted. "Let's just go and hide somewhere!"

"You wanna make sure your girlfriend's alive or what, boy?" Daniel shouted back. "We're goin' to Andrea's house then getting the hell out of Dodge!" He swerved some more in the road as some telephone poles fell in his way. "Kids, buckle the straps!" The two children were already strapped in, but when their dad said "buckle the straps" he meant to really lock the straps in place, to pull out the straps, let them lock, then let them recline back in so they would not worry about hitting their heads against anything but the seat behind them.

Andrew kept a hold on his little sister's hand as they went through a nauseating ride through town. He did not know how it happened, but they had managed to get to Andrea's place with only large scratches on each face of the car. As long as it was still operational and would not blow up any time soon, Daniel was okay with it.

Henry ran up to the door and told the policewoman to probably pack a few snacks into her pockets and get in the car. Andrew unbuckled and sat closer to his sister to let Andrea sit by the window. He had enough excitement for the time being.

"Where are we headed, Daniel?" Andrea said as she also locked her strap.

"Somewhere where we can stay away from ground zero but close enough if we need to go back."

"Back for what?"

"For Foster of course!"

Andrea looked at the two ids sitting next to her. Where the heck was Foster?

"He's back at the farm," Daniel sighed, regretting to let the robot go. "He's with Jazz, fighting off some Decepticons."

"You're crazy, letting him go off like that!"

"I trust him, Andrea! I've had no reason to not trust him! If he says he can handle a Decepticon, I believe him."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the car was lifted up by a cybernetic hand and everyone started to panic. Andrea gave the fear at least two seconds to last and focused to figure out what was happening. She looked out the window and saw a deep red robotic eye staring right back at her. The focus that she had been trained in for years at the police academy again bolted from her and the basic instinct of fear replaced it.

"Where's the boy?" the voice of the eye had said.

Daniel's eyes widened. He knew that voice. He promised himself he would never forget it. He turned around to see the optic and glared right back at it.

"The kid's not with us, Megatron," he growled. "He's safe, you can't get to him no matter how hard you try and find him!"

"Ah, Daniel J. Dawson…" the robot chuckled. "I was wondering when I would see your face again."

"Go to Hell, ya overgrown EasyBake oven."

"Careful." The hand gripped tighter to the car, causing the metal to constrict inside. Mary screamed, afraid of getting crushed. "You don't have that orb to protect you. I can easily kill you."

"You can kiss my—"

Henry acted fast and covered his brother's mouth. One more insult out of any of their mouths and they would be bugs on windshields, almost literally.

Back at the farm, Foster was camouflaged against the dark colors of the sky. He was debating on whether he really should go back and protect his family or stay behind and help Jazz out. Then he decided, well, why not both? He flew over towards Octane and hit him with his sword against the back of the knee joint. Octane screamed so loudly that Foster wondered if he had actually killed him! The triple-changer fell to one knee as the other started pouring out purple fluids. Jazz smiled and looked up at the sky. He was about to mutter a thanks when he saw a familiar shape above one of the clouds.

"Foster, look, your dad's here," he said with a wide smile. Foster had heard him and looked up to see the same figure. An Autobot ship was lowering closer to the ground about half of a mile away from the farm. "You go say hi to 'im, buddy, I'll be alright."

"No." The voice almost took him by surprise, since he did not know the sparkling was right next to him. "You tell him what's going on. I'm going back and save my family." With that, Jazz heard the hum of the little 'bots boosters take off towards the city. Gathering strength the sports car sat up and looked at the wounded Decepticon.

"Ain't so fun when it happens to you, huh?"

Foster flew on and tried something he had never tried before. With his computer of a mind, he tried to call Henry's cell phone. He could only hope that it was on because Henry was the only one with a cell phone but he had only seen it about five times since he came to the Dawsons.

A funky 90s ringtone blared from Henry's pocket. Every eye turned to him, even the one that belonged to Megatron, and he flushed.

"Looks like, uh, someone's… calling me…" he said, embarrassed. He looked at it and the number was unknown. Still he wanted to take it so he did not look like a complete loser in front of the giant metal warlord. "Uh, hello?"

"Yes! Your phone's on!"

"Foster?"

The car echoed with the name and everyone inside scooted closer to try and hear the voice of the child robot. Megatron's optic brightened with interest, illuminating the inside of the car.

"Foster, you're still alive!"

"Yeah! Are you guys okay?"

"Uh, no, we're kind of stuck… It's Megatron."

"MEGATRON?" The bottom of the grey Decepticon's optic curved with amusement. "Put me on speaker." Henry pressed a button and held the phone out so Megatron could hear Foster's voice. "I swear, Megatron, if you hurt my family I will kill you! And I mean it!"

Megatron's laughed boomed. "You'll kill me? I've been inside your head, little Autobot; you don't have the spark to kill me. You'll only do so much as scratch me and hope that your useless father comes to save the day."

"No, Megatron. I mean I will really terminate you."

"You almost sounded serious for a moment there."

"I am serious! I'll tear out your spark if I have to!"

"Whoa, Foster, calm down," Daniel said. He had never known him to be so violent before. He could not imagine the caring little baby 'bot to actually kill anyone, even if the person was trying to kill him first.

"Words, Foster," Megatron grunted. "You're no threat to me. AGH!"

A cut to his helm had just appeared from nowhere and he dropped the Cadillac back onto the road. He looked around to face his assailant but saw no one. Then, just a few feet from his face, the small green robot appeared, hovering.

"I'm not scared of you," he said.

"You should be." Megatron reached out a hand to grab him, but he flew away to quickly and landed another strike to Megatron's right shoulder. "Imbecile!" Megatron lifted his fusion cannon and fired, trying to hit the child of Prime. Foster dodged as fast as he could, just avoiding the blasts, feeling the heat of the laser as it flew by him. He tried to make the Decepticon shoot upwards so the blasts would not hit any buildings or people. Megatron became frustrated and kicked the Cadillac on the ground, making it fly at least thirty feet and tumble across the ground. The five inside held tight to anything they could, trying not to die

Foster saw what Megatron had done and was even angrier than ever. His body turned red and his temperature rose high. With a roar he blasted a large fireball in the direction of Megatron, who almost dodged it; the fire managed to hit his foot.

"You're dead for sure, Megatron!" He held his arms up over his head and generated another ball that Mary would have easily mistaken for the sun.

xXx

We all know that one person with the jammin' ringtone.

I'll try to get this done soon, just in case my laptop decides to be mental again.