The rumble of a truck woke Emily and she looked up to see a black truck slipping past them and moving into a position in front of them. Ratchet's radio crackled and a deep, male voice echoed through the cab, "Ratchet? That had better be you back there."

Ratchet's soft chuckle answered and his holofrom flickered a little, "Long time no see, Ironhide. How's life been to you?"

They'd been traveling for who knows how long, Sentinel and Ratchet going well above legal speed limits as they raced across the country. Two more cars and some bikes had joined them shortly after passing near Hollywood. Now, by the looks of things, there was the truck and another car, a convertible. Em rubbed her eyes and glanced in the back as Ratchet chatted with whoever Ironhide was. Tom and Honu were curled up together, both fast asleep. After the adventure they'd had over the past couple days, she couldn't blame them. They'd run into a few 'Cons here and there, but they'd run off before any serious damage was done. Either Sentinel or the Autobot named Thunderclap would take care of them.

"Boss says they'll meet us in the main hanger. Everyone else is already there," Ironhide's voice cut through her thoughts.

"Whoa, what?" Em cut in. Nothing was going to happen without her knowing anything. "What is going on?"

"Who's that?" Ironhide growled as another voice cut in.

"Em?" it sounded like Erika.

"Erika?" Em gasped, but the radio suddenly was taken over by another, very authoritative voice.

"Autobots, welcome back to base. It's been too long," the voice was calm, cool, crisp.

"This, Em, is where we're going," Ratchet nodded at the front window and Em looked up, her eyes going wide. Before them, rising over the horizon was a cliff. One side was rounded, blending into the hills next to it. The hill wasn't the amazing part itself. They were drawing towards as well lit fence about a good half mile from the hill. And it wasn't just any fence, it was barbed wire, chain link, electric type fence with guard towers and patrols everywhere. A single road wove its way to the hill, branching off into two directions. One headed for the cliff face, moving to the base of the cliff where a huge door could be seen, metal by the looks of it. Lights lit up a parking lot next to the door and more men could be seen there as well, heavily armed. The other road headed up the hill itself, leading to its most impressive feature. At the top of the hill, accented by the slowly rising full moon behind it, was a massive fortress. It looked like it had been built after one of the medieval castles, tall was and towers covering the perimeter with towers and buildings peaking over the top. It was made of an all white stone or maybe metal, it was hard to tell.

"What is that?" she gasped, in awe of the building before her.

"NEST headquarters," Ratchet nodded. "That's not even half of it. A lot of it is underground."

"But…. why so much?"

"That will all be explained inside," Ratchet sighed as they were waved through the gates. Thunderclap streaked overhead and landed by the door, easily transforming and pulling it open as they pulled up. Ironhide lead the way inside into a massive hanger. Men moved around, but the majority of the movement came from the far end where more Autobots stood. Ironhide led them over, everyone staying silent. Ratchet pulled to a stop not too far away from the Autobots and popped his doors open, "Well, I need to stretch my legs."

"Mom, what's going on?" Tom moved up front as Honu jumped out. All the other vehicles were around them now, slowly transforming into the Autobots' bipedal forms.

"I don't know, hon," Em climbed out, Tom not too far behind, allowing Ratchet to transform. The truck had transformed and was frowning down a human next to it. The person snapped something before moving away and Em caught a flash of red hair. "Erika!"

She wasn't the only one who had yelled and a blur slammed into Erika as Em and Tom rushed over, Honu on their heels. Tom high fived Charles as Amanda let go of Erika and latched on to Em, "What are you two doing here?"

"We're still trying to figure that out," Erika gently pried Amanda off Em. "My ride won't say."

Em glanced up at Ratchet, who had followed, "When do we find out?"

"Soon, very soon," Sentinel moved past moving towards where the other Autobots were moving. "Come on, Optimus is waiting."

"Wait, you mean as in Optimus Prime?" Erika gasped and raced after him. The others followed a little slower, Ratchet and a yellow Autobot staying right behind them.

Most of the Autobots who had been with them sat around the edge of what seemed to be a conference center, some looking amused, some looking worried. In the middle was a table, built to accommodate both humans and Autobots. Sitting at it was three mechs. One was red and blue and very big and had an air about him that screamed leader. He no doubt was Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. The sitting to his right was black and white and it looked like Police might have been written on some of his panels. To Optimus' left and obviously taking a more neutral seat since he was situated between everyone was a red mech. He was slightly smaller than the others, but he seemed to still hold a lot of power. On the other end sat two humans. Well, one human sat, the other was standing in front of a huge map, obviously pissed by the way her shoulders were tense. The human sitting was male, about middle aged with brown hair and soft eyes. He glanced at them briefly before focusing back on the woman standing by the map. She was of average height, wearing black cargo pants and a white tank top. White bandages covering her shoulders and disappearing down her back underneath the tank top broke her dark skin. She had a pistol holstered on her hip and her white hair was pulled back in a braid. She seemed to be in charge at the moment since everyone was staring at her. Ironhide and Sentinel stopped just behind where the Autobots were sitting, stopping them as the woman gestured at the map, "Where the hell did all these 'Cons come from? We've got Devastator, Blackout, a Pretender and Soundwave all sighted and confirmed, plus a half dozen others and still no sign of Megatron."

"Que says someone was messing with his computers up at the station. Figured it was probably Skywarp," the black and white mech growled. "Probably how he got Sarah."

"Look, we have everyone here, so why don't we take a break, check on everyone, get something to eat and come back in a few hours," the man reached out to the woman, gently touching her arm. She seemed to relax under his touch, but didn't turn.

"Fine, a few hours, but then its right back to work, " she nodded, still studying the map.

"That should give Que enough time to fix the computers and get them back online," Optimus nodded, standing and looking down at the humans behind him. "Welcome to NEST."

He and the black and white mech moved away as the other Autobots dispersed, moving towards a side hanger. Another mech moved over by them, "Op says Barricade's in bad shape."

"I'll go have a look at him, Jazz," Ratchet nodded before glancing down at Em. "Stay here with the others. I will be back soon."

"Take your time," Em waved him off. "Say hi to your friends while you can."

Ratchet smiled before moving off and she turned back to the others. Erika was about to say something when someone cleared his or her throat nearby. They all turned to see a familiar face.

"So, what do you want to know first?" Carolyn was leaning against the table near them, her arms crossed. The man was standing next to her, smirking a little. Erika took a step forward and swung a fist at Carolyn.

"You did this!" Erika hissed, but her fist never connected. Carolyn caught it in her hand and smiled at them.

"So, this is how you say hello in Canada?"