Bella stepped out of the truck and walked into the collection station.
Several workers were repairing cars on site. Only one old man in a floral shirt sat behind the counter listening to the radio.
"Excuse me, do you have a very old yellow Volkswagen Beetle here? A really beat-up car."
The old man glanced at her with cloudy eyes, then lowered his head without speaking.
Well then! Quite the attitude!
Bella pulled out her FBI credentials: "Look carefully. I'll ask one more time—do you have a very old yellow Volkswagen Beetle here?"
The old man instantly froze, his attitude doing a complete one-eighty.
He thought for a moment, then said rather hesitantly: "Already sold it..."
"To whom? This involves national security. Please answer carefully." Bella pressed.
The old man seemed to have an internal struggle before finally revealing the truth under her scrutinizing gaze: "Brighton Falls. A girl named Charlie Watson."
To avoid being deceived, Bella still went to check where the Volkswagen Beetle had been parked.
The site was dirty and messy. Aside from the heavy smell of motor oil, she didn't sense any negative energy.
She had her suspicions. She drove the pickup away from San Francisco toward this nearby town of Brighton Falls.
At the same time, a signal wave transmitted from Brighton Falls was intercepted somewhere in outer space. Two figures immediately sped toward Earth.
"Shaw, do you believe in aliens?" Bella asked, gripping the steering wheel.
"Take me home?" The female ghost looked confused. You're discussing aliens with a ghost?
Bella also felt it was a bit strange. These two things didn't match at all...
The town wasn't far from San Francisco. With her FBI credentials as leverage, finding the girl Charlie Watson's home address wasn't difficult. But the girl wasn't home, and that Volkswagen Beetle wasn't in the garage either.
She heard the girl's mother had driven the pet to the hospital.
Bella checked several nearby veterinary hospitals. After running around until she was hungry, she still hadn't found the girl.
"Take me home!" Shaw was a bit tired. Wandering around in daylight put a heavy burden on her.
"Her classmates said she likes going to the beach to clear her head. Let's check the beach one last time. If we don't find her, we'll come back tonight!"
"Take me home." This time Shaw indicated agreement.
Brighton Falls bordered the ocean. The girl Charlie Watson couldn't suppress her excitement as she drove the yellow Volkswagen Beetle to the beach.
This morning when her mother drove the pet to the hospital, it had really scared her. This car had a secret—he was a robot! At least that's what the girl Charlie Watson believed.
Looking left and right, the girl didn't see anyone on the beach. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and push open the car door.
"Bumblebee?"
The yellow Volkswagen Beetle flipped from back to front.
A series of clicking mechanical transmission sounds came from inside the vehicle. The doors and front wheels folded to the back, the headlights and hood flipped to the chest position. First two arms emerged from the body, then a head, and finally the trunk split down the middle and stretched into two legs with the rear wheels positioned at the ankles. The entire transformation completed in less than one second.
Because the movement was too fast, and Bumblebee hadn't noticed he was on sand, his transformation showered the girl with sand all over her head and face.
"Oh God, I shouldn't have brought you to the beach!" The girl complained somewhat. Bumblebee apologetically helped brush the sand from her hair, moving very carefully but with mediocre results. The girl pouted and tidied herself.
The girl sighed: "Humans do terrible things to what they don't understand. If they discover you, they'll take you to a laboratory..."
The girl had absolutely no intention of turning in what she'd found. She repeatedly instructed Bumblebee that only she could see his humanoid form. Bumblebee nodded repeatedly like a puppy.
The two 'people' practiced for quite a while. The basic principle was: maintain car form in front of strangers, maintain car form in front of acquaintances, only maintain humanoid form in front of me.
"Okay, okay! Let's practice once! Oh! Someone's coming!" The girl's expression was exaggerated as she hid behind a rock. But after waiting two seconds and finding no movement beside her, she peeked out to look.
This sight made her laugh in exasperation. Bumblebee was like an ostrich, rear end sticking up, hiding behind a small rock less than half a meter in diameter.
"You're killing me!—" The girl scratched her head in frustration. Bumblebee crouched on the ground, curled up his body, looking pitiful and helpless.
"All right, all right, we can practice again. Oh God! Someone really is coming! Quick! Transform! Hurry, hurry!" The girl saw a pickup truck on the road and quickly patted Bumblebee's leg.
This time the girl got another mouthful of sand. When Bella drove the pickup close, she was still shaking sand off.
"That's the one, right?" Bella asked from inside the vehicle.
Shaw nodded and pointed at Bumblebee, who'd turned back into a Beetle lying on the ground, her tone questioning: "Take me home?"
"This definitely has nothing to do with you. You're not even the same species..."
Eagle Vision wasn't practiced for nothing. Bella's eyesight was excellent now—she'd spotted Bumblebee from far away.
She knew enough about Transformers to recognize him. Bumblebee was distinctive—yellow Beetle, friendly personality. That much she remembered clearly.
The girl's act of nonchalantly shaking off sand was somewhat amusing.
As usual, she led with her FBI credentials, smoothly displaying them: "Charlie Watson?"
The girl jumped in surprise. Already guilty, seeing FBI credentials made the panic on her face almost impossible to hide.
She nodded somewhat mechanically, nervous to the extreme, because she realized Bella's focus wasn't on her but on her car.
The girl's lips parted slightly, her eyes full of worry.
Bella circled the Beetle twice, asking casually: "Do you have purchase documentation for this car?"
"Yes! But it's at home!" The girl forced a smile.
Bella pointed at the rear bumper: "Why isn't there a license plate mounted?"
How could I dare get it registered! The girl couldn't figure out why this FBI agent cared about license plates. She scratched her head: "I might have put it under the seat. Let me look..."
Actually look for what! She rushed into the driver's seat, slammed the door, and shouted in a low voice: "Bumblebee! Run! Run!"