The pickup entered ghost stealth mode, silently infiltrating Charlie Watson's garage in spirit form.
The whole family was sleeping. The yellow Volkswagen Beetle sat quietly in the garage, looking no different from an ordinary car.
Bella chuckled, examining the Beetle closely.
Shaw also walked out of the vehicle, bringing her aura of cold air.
The two stood before the Beetle, observing openly.
Bumblebee watched them nervously, unsure what these two 'people' wanted.
Both 'people' were very strange. In his electronic scan, Bella's energy readings were completely different from normal humans—like a massive vortex, continuously absorbing electronic signals. Ultimately, Bella appeared extremely blurry to Bumblebee's sensors.
Shaw was even stranger. The scan showed unknown energy. Bumblebee really couldn't tell what this was—gas, liquid, or solid?
Was this the "ghost" Charlie had mentioned? Bumblebee was terrified...
Right now, Bumblebee's memory module was missing. His understanding of Earth was nearly zero—pure as a blank slate, finding everything novel.
Bella and Shaw were examining him, while he secretly watched the two 'people' as well.
"This guy seems severely damaged. Can you fix him?" Bella turned to ask Shaw.
Pickup Shaw scratched her head in a very unladylike manner. This was really new—she didn't know if her supernatural car repair would work on an alien like Bumblebee.
She extended one hand, somewhat hesitant.
"It's fine, slap away. If it breaks, it doesn't matter!" Bella encouraged from the side.
Shaw slapped Bumblebee's hood: "Take me home?"
Obscure and difficult energy ripples enveloped the entire car. Bumblebee was baffled. He felt like he'd fallen into a methane pond—the surrounding energy aura was so strange, so hard to detect. He just felt very cold, dizzy, and overwhelmingly sleepy. What was happening?
Shaw stepped back two paces, looking at Bumblebee, then at Bella: "Take me home?"
Looked like supernatural car repair had its limits!
"Watch me!" Bella pulled an extremely ancient scripture from her bag.
This was an ancient Zoroastrian text. Not the original, of course—this Middle Eastern religion was older than Christianity, allegedly the source of Manichaeism. The original texts couldn't be found. What Bella held was a medieval church scribe's handwritten copy.
She skipped the praise, blessings, and dedication steps, going straight to the point.
She was using divine miracle car repair!
According to the text, a deity once demonstrated divine power by fixing a wealthy merchant's donkey cart.
In principle, a donkey cart and a car were both vehicles meant for transportation. Theoretically, if this spell could fix a donkey cart, it should also work on a car... right?
She recited a long string of scripture with rising and falling tones, then raised her left hand and slapped Bumblebee's hood hard: "Divine Grace!"
Crack—a loud explosion accompanied by bright flashing light. Streaks of fire cut through the air, and faint roars of fierce beasts echoed. These phenomena scared Bumblebee so badly he almost jumped. His legs had already completed transformation—at the critical moment, remembering Charlie Watson's instructions, he forcibly held back.
"Take me home?"
"No! There will definitely be some effect. My psionic energy was consumed. Wait and see."
Bella figured the Zoroastrian deities were long gone—ancient history—which was why she dared use their prayers so freely. If it were a Christian text, she wouldn't dare play around like this. Those powers were still active!
The Zoroastrian prayers were completely fine. After all, they were summaries of divine understanding of world rules—the words possessed magical power. Though the deities themselves were gone and couldn't respond to prayers, with Bella providing the magical energy, this repair spell could be completed.
Bumblebee felt a completely different warmth now.
As the source of Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism had fire worship characteristics. Though it was an ancient Persian religion, fire worship and their Spark shared at least some connection—just a bit...
The originally depleted energy source received fresh infusion. Broken internal parts slowly repaired. The filthy exterior became cleaner and cleaner.
"Heh, I said there'd be a change!" Bella clasped her hands behind her back, looking proud.
"Take me home!"
Shaw praised her repeatedly—basically meaning "awesome" and such.
Bumblebee felt comfortable all over. Though it wasn't the pure energy Autobots needed and contained quite a few impurities, for him this was precious enough.
But remembering Charlie Watson's instructions, he still lay on the ground motionless.
"Stop playing dead. I know you're awake. Stand up." Bella kicked the left front wheel.
Bumblebee extended a mechanical arm from under the chassis, his hand waving left and right twice, meaning 'I'm not awake, I'm not here, don't look for me'!
Bella was genuinely amused. This guy was adorably silly.
She pulled out a sticky note and wrote down her phone number.
"Your existence will cause significant harm to Charlie Watson's family. They're just ordinary people who can't understand your form of existence. Of course, you probably can't listen to this right now. If you run into trouble, remember to call me."
Bella turned and left with Shaw.
The previous repair spell's light effects had been truly spectacular. These ancient deities, in order to spread their religion, often added a bunch of special effects to simple spells. What was just a car repair spell now looked like something had exploded. Continuing to stay here would easily attract attention from various parties. The two of them took off running.
After Bella and Shaw left, the Watson family searched everywhere, not knowing where the previous light explosion had come from. The girl nervously fooled her family and came alone to the garage. Seeing Bumblebee still honestly lying there, she finally breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"Someone was here earlier?" She asked.
Bumblebee's mechanical arm extended from under the chassis. He first held up one finger, indicating one person, then felt that was wrong and extended another finger. Then feeling that wasn't right either, he hesitantly retracted one finger.
The girl was confused too. What did this mean? Holding up one finger at a time like this—could Bumblebee not count? She'd teach him math tomorrow!
She only asked what she cared about most: "They didn't discover you, did they?"
This time Bumblebee waved his hand rather proudly. I didn't even acknowledge them—how could they discover me? He was so clever!
"That's good then. You rest too. I'm going back to sleep..." The girl Charlie Watson yawned, rubbing her eyes as she left the garage.