Guess what? 1: I'm not dead. 2: Neither is this story. I thought people had stopped reading this, but it turns out to be the exact opposite. SO, I'm going to try to keep up with writing this time, and get myself set up in a routine again. Hopefully I won't drop this again. I really want to finish this story just because I want to see it in its full glory. Really, REALLY, BADLY. Plus, you guys want it done too, of course. Heh.

Chapter 7

Obnoxious and True

Sam was on her way back upstairs to her room after having finished supper. Her dad was staying late at work tonight, and her mom had opted to continue working in the office room, so it was only her and the maid, nanny, and cook of the house, Emily. They talked some, about school and mostly about what she learned in her magic studies. Emily was a sorceress herself. That was good. With all the commotion that often went on in the house, there would have been no way to keep the secret from her.

Sam made it to her door. Luckily, the sound of the Decepticons banging from confinement had stopped a while before, and the 'Cons she and Rebecca were playing with were put back in the desk when her friend left, save for Soundwave, who had tape over his mouth. The last thing she needed was explaining to her mom why her toys were trying to escape her desk drawer.

Sam stuck her head inside her room and looked for any signs that the toys might have escaped.

"Hey!"

She jumped. Bumblebee was calling her attention. All three of the Autobots were standing in front of the door as if they had been waiting for her. Sam had hoped they would stay under the covers of the bed and out of danger until she got back, but obviously that was aiming too high. She checked the hallways were still empty before going inside, carefully stepping over the 'bots and softly closing the door until it clicked. She knelt down to them.

"Well, it's about time! What took you so long? We've been in here for mega-cycles!" The yellow 'bot placed his servos on his waist for emphasis of his irritation.

"And why don't our weapons work," the now awake Bulkhead asked. "We'd been trying to bust out of here, but our stuff ain't work'n."

"What's going on, Samantha?" Prowl using Sam's full name made her slightly nervous. The first time she animated him, he was being all nice to her. Now, he was serious. She couldn't blame him, though, not after what happened in her room with all those Decepticons.

Sam scooped them up in her arms, a distant look on her face.

"Hey! What are ya doing! I'm not going back in there! Do you know how hard it was to get out the first time?"

"I'm not putting you back under the covers. I need to tell you guys something."

She placed them on the bed, situating herself directly in front of them. She twiddled her fingers, not knowing what to say, even as they stared with a mixture of inquisitiveness and impatience. Thinking of how to tell them, Sam looked away to the desk. Her thoughts moved away for a second on where the two Decepticons might have run off too, but then returned to figuring out how to say what she wanted to say. Even after she had the words, Sam moved her gaze back to her own twiddling fingers. She tried to speak, but was unable to get more than a squeak out.

"Um. Uh."

"Talk louder!" Bumblebee shouted, "We can't hear you!"

Prowl turned to the obnoxious 'bot and smacked him upside the head, making Bumblebee let out a loud yelp. "Be quiet. If those Decepticons are still hiding in here, your loudness will attract them."

Bumblebee shot him a glare, hunched over and looked ready to throw a retort back, but Sam finally spoke up.

"You—you're technically not…real…"

The Autobots all exchanged questioning looks. "Of course we're real. We're standing right in front of ya, aren't we?" Bumblebee shrugged his shoulders as if unsure of his own statement.

"Yeah," Bulkhead piped. Though, he was unsure as well, but about why there was a giant human sitting in front of them.

"But that doesn't explain why we're smaller than a human," Prowl said, almost as if reading Bulkhead's mind.

"I'm telling you guys, she's gotta be one of those giants from that fairytale. Sari said they could be as big as Megatron! If they get as big as him, then this must be a really big giant!"

"I'm not a giant," Sam explained innocently. "I'm a normal-sized twelve-year-old. You guys are just…small. Really, really small."

"No, no, no. You got it backwards. You're a giant, and we're normal-sized. Ya know, for Cybertronians."

"Last time I checked, you were a bit on the short side." Prowl couldn't hide back a smirk as he said that.

"I'm not short!" Bumblebee shrieked.

"Listen, guys," Sam continued. Their attention turned to her again. "There's a TV show called Transformers: Animated. It's about a team of Autobots that crashes on Earth and wakes up fifty years later. They defend Detroit from human criminals and Decepticons."

"A TV show? About us? Awesome," Bumblebee grinned. He knew the humans loved taking pictures and showing them on the news, but he hadn't realized there was a TV show about them. He wondered if he was the star of the show. What was he thinking? Of course he was!

"What's that got to do with anything," Bulkhead asked. He knew he wasn't the brightest of the bunch, but that still didn't sound relevant to why they weren't in Detroit or why the humans here were so huge.

"You're not getting it. When people make cartoons like that, the—"

"Cartoon? The show is a cartoon? Cool! I need to find it so me and Sari can—"

"You're toys! OK?" She took a deep breath.

"Okay, I know we're super small compared to you. But we. Are not. Toys."

Sam stared blankly at Bumblebee. "There's a reason people call you obnoxious."

"Yeah, he really is," Bulkhead agreed.

Bumblebee glared at his friend. He hadn't expected his buddy to agree with her. "That hurts, Bulkhead," he said, sarcasm dripping from his vocals.

Sam threw her arms in the air. "Why won't you guys believe me?"

"You have to admit, it's a bit hard to believe in the first place," Prowl said, holding his chin, "but, the more important question is, how do we get back to Detroit?"

Sam waved her hand nonchalantly. "Pfft, that's easy. I…," Sam paused. Staring into space, she put a hand to her chin. "Uh…does that even count?"

"What does what count?" Bumblebee climbed up on Sam's knee, albeit with some difficulty. When Sam didn't respond, he waved his hands in front of her face. "Hey? Are you listening? You're staring right at me! HELLOOOO?"

"Shhhhh!" She waved him off. "I'm thinking!" Sam turned away from Bumblebee so she could finish her thought-in-process. "What...What was I thinking?"

For a few seconds, the room was very quiet, and everyone (including a very impatient, foot-tapping bug) waited for her to answer their question of getting home.

"Oh, now I remember."

Everyone leaned in close.

"...I have no idea."

All their faces fell. Now what?

"I can reverse the animation casting which will make you stop moving." And technically being alive. "But you guys getting home?" She shrugged. "Detroit is a real place, but—"

"But what? How do we get home!" Bumblebee hopped up and down on Sam's knee.

The ninja interjected, "Bumblebee, will you calm down for one nanoclick and listen? Honestly, you're like a sparkling."

Sam wanted to tell them that the Detroit they know doesn't exist. The problem was that they might not believe her, or, if they did, they'd probably be depressed about having no way of getting home. She didn't want either, and went with an alternate answer.

"You'd never be able to get there! At least, at your size," she started, her tone over enthusiastic. "It'd take you forever to get up from here to there, not to mention other cars might crush you before you could make it to Detroit!" Sam chuckled uneasily.

"Hmm. Is there any other way to get to Detroit?"

She gave him a blank stare. "Not that I can afford."

"Well, we'll just have to keep trying to find a way to get back to Detroit! Who's with me?"

Bulkhead lifted his servo in the air. "I'm with ya, buddy!"

"As am I. If we all work together, we can find a way to get back to everyone in Detroit. That includes you, Sam."

Sam's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "M—me? Really?"

"O' course! The more the better!"

"Besides, we'll need you to help us get around since we're so small, as well as help us keep the Decepticons away."

"Yeah, because, ya know, it's not like we have weapons that work or anything."

Sam giggled at that. "Alrighty! Now, since we have that out of the way, I still need to find everyone not in that drawer." Sam removed herself from the bed, and prepared herself to search every nook and cranny of the bedroom. More than likely, Megatron wasn't underneath the bed anymore, and she had no idea where the others had gone.

Bumblebee raised an optic. "Who's that?"

"Slipstream, Blackarachnia and Megatron. No wait, and Skywarp too. Oh—oh craaaaackers."

"What is it?" Prowl walked towards Sam. He noticed that the drop off the bed was pretty steep, and was careful to keep away from the edge.

"I forgot about Lockdown! I told Rebecca there was four Decepticons running around my room when there's still that jerk of a bounty hunter too! I completely forgot about him! Agh! Why'd I animate so many Decepticons? I can't keep track of all of them."

"Beats me. Don't know why you'd wanna 'animate' them in the first place."

"Come on guys, help me find them. We can't just leave them wandering around in my room. Especially Megatron." She shivered at the thought of Megatron running around her room. It was equivalent to having a gopher-sized rat living somewhere in the walls. You couldn't see it, but there would be that nagging feeling that you knew it was there.

She wasn't going to sleep well tonight if she couldn't at least find him.

I know this is relatively short compared to my other chapters, but trust me, I'm working on the next chapter, and that one is definitely gonna be normal length for this story.