He had helped save the world from alien robots that had been hell-bent on destroying Earth and turning its denizens into ash. His car, which appeared to be a sleek, yellow and black Camaro, was an alien robot warrior that could transform at will. He had faced down the leader of the Decepticons and lived.

And yet a simple Computer Science course threatened to be the end of him yet.

Sam sighed and looked over through the tattered book for his CS 110 class. The pages were frayed and there were highlighter marks all throughout the pages, but, one, used books were cheaper, and two, most of the answers had already been highlighted.

In the other room, Sam could hear Leo talking excitedly with his two cohorts about the alien robots that were still on Earth and the problems that this "Robowarrior" guy was giving them. Grumbling under his breath, Sam furiously flipped through the pages and wondered if he could get in trouble for getting help on his Computer Science homework from a being that had a computer for a brain.

"Still working on the Computer Science homework, bro?" Leo called from the makeshift computer lab.

"Yeah...I think I'm gonna' ask Sophie for help."

"Sophie?" There was a pause and then Leo poked his head around the doorframe. "You mean Sophie Anderson? The chick with the lip piercing and skateboard?"

"Yeah, yeah," Sam replied quickly, shutting the book and grabbing his cellphone. "She and I used to go to high school together. She's a complete computer whiz. I'm surprised you don't have her working overtime with you guys."

"Yeah, she's a complete computer whiz...and a complete and utter hermit! Dude, she never leaves her dorm. She's like the Gollum of computer nerds."

"She's not that bad," Sam retorted, pulling on a jacket. "She just keeps to herself is all."

"You're funeral, man, and I'm not sending in a rescue party if she decides to try and devour your soul or something."

()

Walking briskly down the dorm hallway, cradling his Computer Science book under his arm, Sam felt a small grin work on his face. Mikaela had texted him this morning, wishing him a good day at school and telling him that she already missed him. Sam missed her, too. He'd wanted to bring her with him to college, but she had refused him each time, and each time she explained the same refrain that she had to help her father out. And while Sam understood, it didn't make her being thousands of miles away any easier.

As he jogged across the lush, green grass of one of the campus's yards to the adjacent dormitory building, Sam wondered if Sophie would even remember him. They'd been good enough friends, but Sophie had kept to herself, immersing herself in computers and networking while Sam was out saving the world.

When he found out that they were going to the same college, Sam had tried to do what he thought was the "friend" thing to do and texted her to find out how she was doing and the like. Currently, he'd received three texts from her, and they had all consisted of less than three sentences.

At least one of them had been her dorm room number.

Sam knocked on the door, but mid-way through the third knock, the door swung open and Sam found himself being glared down by his former high school classmate.

"Uh, hey," he said, waving weakly.

"Do I know you?" Sophie hissed, her nose already scrunching up.

"Uh...S-Sam...Sam Witwicky. We went to high school together, remember?"

"Right." Sophie started to slam the door shut, but paused, then opened the door so that she was looking at Sam. "Wait...Witwicky?"

Sam nodded slowly. There was something else he'd forgotten about Sophie. Coupled with her hair trigger temper was Sophie's love for rugby and her penchant for practicing tackles off the field. While Sam was halfway certain he could outrun Sophie, he didn't want to test it.

Sophie studied Sam for a few minutes, then jerked her head slightly, motioning for him to come in. She shut the door behind him and walked over to her computer, quickly minimizing the windows she'd had open on the monitor.

"What do you want?" she asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Um, you know how you said that if I needed help with my computer homework to ask you?"

Sophie paused and turned around. She stared at Sam with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms. Her hair looked like it'd been cut with a lawnmower, and there was about an inch of dark roots showing, while the rest was bleached blonde. A silver ring rested on the left side of her lower lip, and a pair of sharp green eyes watched Sam closely.

"I didn't say that," Sophie retorted. "If you really were Sam Witwicky, you'd know I don't offer my help out like that."

"Yeah, you did," Sam replied quickly. "Remember? Right before we graduated."

There was a pause, then Sophie grinned faintly.

"Oh yeah, I did, huh? I felt sorry for you because you'd gotten pummeled by those football players, yeah?"

Sam was silent, but the expression on his face said it all. Sophie grabbed her rolling computer chair and rolled it to the edge of the bed, where Sam was already seated.

"Well, what're you having trouble with?"

"Programming, mostly."

"Wait...I thought you said you wanted to do something in Political Sciences or what have you?" Sophie looked down at the book, then back up at Sam.

"Prerequisites."

Grumbling something under her breath about the college campus trying to bleed the students dry, Sophie picked up the tattered book and began leafing through it.

()

The hangar was practically alive as the large C-5 Galaxies were being loaded with pallets of supplies. Decepticons had been spotted in Shanghai, and N.E.S.T. and the Autobots were moving in to neutralize the Decepticon threat before it got any worse.

Major Lennox peered down the sight of the modified M16. The rifle had been augmented to fire high impact rounds that would, supposedly, penetrate the metallic hide of a Decepticon. Lennox wasn't overly hopeful. He'd seen Decepticons brush off heavy artillery fire as though it were little more than a tickle.

A loud crash rattled through the hangar, quickly followed by two arguing voices, and Lennox looked up to see Mudflap and Skids snapping at each other and trying to hit the other with pieces of scrap metal that they had managed to procure. They were arguing about something about being an ice cream van, but they were talking too fast for Lennox to properly make out what they were saying.

"Hey, where's Prime?" Mudflap yelled, looking over at Lennox.

The soldier glanced around, but didn't have time to answer. Skids took advantage of the situation and shoved Mudflap out of the way, interrupting the two.

"Yeah, we wanna' know why we gotta' be some scrawny ice cream truck."

"Well-" That was as far as Lennox got.

"Yeah, why aren't we able to get something faster?"

"Because," Ironhide interjected walking over to the twins. "if you two little punks went any faster, we might mistake you for annoying little gnats and blast you both."

"Hey, hey...we're just asking. Ice cream truck sounds good, though."

The twins backed down and Ironhide rolled his optics and glanced down at Lennox. The battle-hardened Autobot swore he could hear Lennox's faith in Autobot intelligence dropping as he watched the twins bicker even further.

"Do they ever stop arguing?" Lennox asked with a grin.

Shaking his head, Ironhide turned to Optimus Prime, who had just entered the hangar. The Autobot leader regarded the arguing twins with a quick glance, then turned to Ironhide, who's narrow-eyed expression said everything.

"Do we have to take them with us, Prime?" Ironhide grumbled.

"The Decepticon readings were numerous," Optimus answered. "As frustrating as they may be at times, their assistance will be invaluable."

Ironhide gave Optimus a disbelieving look, but said nothing. The weapons specialist turned to Sideswipe, who was darting back and forth. The smaller Autobot may have lacked brute strength like some of the other Autobots, but whatever he lacked he made up for in speed...and vanity.

The overhead speaker suddenly clicked on, ordering the Autobots to board the transporter jet. They were heading to Shanghai.