More Than Meets the Eye (Discontinued, will rewrite on AO3)

Optimus allowed Vince to get out and grab his bag before transforming, and Vince stared at him for a few seconds, forgetting how tall Optimus was.

"Th-thanks," Vince muttered, going up to the human area. Optimus simply nodded. Bee had transformed off to the side with Raf in his servo before setting him in the human area gently. Raf could tell Bee was upset about something but didn't ask the scout. Bee glared at Vince, but couldn't do anything when Ratchet told him to investigate an energon signal with Bulkhead. The two bots walked out, and Vince gaped at the GroundBridge.

"What is that?" he asked Ratchet, pointing to the large machine. Ratchet huffed. "A GroundBridge. To put it simply, it allows us to travel anywhere on Earth, granted we have those coordinates."

"Wow, Ratchet actually gave you a straight answer first try," Miko said from her spot on the couch next to Jack. Ratchet rolled his optics and turned back to his screens as Vince gave her a confused look. She had already started asking Raf about history homework though. Jack shook his head in amusement as he pulled out a blue binder and flipped through it before pulling out a sheet of math problems. Vince ignored his homework for now and walked down the stairs of the human area to Ratchet's. By now the kids stopped their work to watch him in confusion.

"He's dead," Miko muttered. Even Optimus and Arcee watched in curiosity. Vince climbed the ladder and walked over to be near the large monitors.

"So, did you build it?" He asked as he leaned on the railing, catching the medic by surprise.

"What? No. I did not build the original GroundBridge. This one, however, was created by me through a mix of human and cybertronian resources," he replied, looking over at the bridge before turning to look back at the teen. "Why did you want to know?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm just curious. Is that allowed?" he asked sarcastically.

"Just unusual," Ratchet replied.

"I'm just surprised our government hasn't demanded you tell them how to build this," Vince replied indifferently, shifting so his body was fully facing the autobot. He leaned forward and set his arms on the rail.

"They attempted to, but Optimus had different ideas," Ratchet replied, just as indifferently. Vince raised an eyebrow and looked over at the said mech, who hadn't been paying attention and was talking with Arcee.

"Different ideas how?" Vince asked, now actually interested.

"Optimus didn't want your country to be able to abuse this power and create war. Your government wasn't exactly happy about that, of course, but we achieved a compromise when Decepticons almost destroyed a small town for an energon vein," Ratchet explained.

"I guess being a diplomat is part of the job description, huh?" Vince asked casually, shifting his weight to one side and resting his head in one of his hands.

"A part of it," Ratchet replied, turning back to his work and starting to type again. Vince thought about that for a moment, and the others went back to their homework. The base was quiet for a while, save for the quiet chatter of Optimus and Arcee. Vince was lost in thought about how Optimus would actually act in a diplomatic meeting and became amused at the thought of government officials talking to a semi, or Optimus having to participate by peering through a window, or whatever it is they did. He was jerked out of his thoughts when a voice came through the monitors, scaring him half to death.

"Ratch, ready for a bridge," Bulkhead's voice rang through the room.

"On it's way," Ratchet replied, leaving his work to walk over to the GroundBridge controls and pulling the lever. The bridge hummed and then buzzed as it activated, and the room had a green hue to it as the two bots stepped through. One looked livid, however. Vince wondered what Bee's problem was.