Hi, fellas! FourthWallBreaker here, posting a new chapter in Maria's adventurous series. This one picks up almost immediately after the Axiom Nexus story I posted a couple weeks back, making it the seventh in the series.

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone except for Maria, her family, and the six OC Cybertronians I happen to be deploying.

Hope you enjoy! :)

Chapter 1

"We have to get over to Nevada," a teenage girl muttered, her blue eyes narrow as she paced on the sidewalk. "With something like that so close, they're going to need our help."

"You don't know that," came a reply from a young woman with crystalline blue eyes. "This could've happened before -"

"The whole nearly world-shattering thing happened here before it happened there!" the teenager retorted, stopping her pacing. "Wildfire, they could end up getting offlined, or worse!"

The woman leaned out of the red and orange sports car she was sitting in and poked the teenager in the chest. "Keep your voice down, Maria. I'd rather not get more attention than we already have been because of you and those video games!"

Maria ducked her head and took a step back from the accusing finger, holding up her hands in surrender. "Sorry...Frieda. Got a little carried away there." She looked up and down the street, glancing at the book shop behind her. "All the same, I don't like sitting on my hands when something big is going down in Nevada and they aren't letting anybody within a hundred miles of that citadel. Especially after what happened to...Jasper..." Maria hung her head at the thought of the destruction, and her orange jacket and red shirt flickered for a moment.

"Hey." Frieda's face softened from the hard glare it had been a moment before. "Joshua and...Justin have been poking around. They found out that everybody that was in Jasper had been evacuated before the town had been destroyed."

"Yeah. Khrista told me." Maria looked back up at the woman, her brown hair shifting slightly as a breeze came down the street. The wind didn't cause Frieda's red-gold hair to move, however. "It's got to be hard on the kids, though. I just hope that -"

"They're going to be fine, and you know it," Frieda stated seriously. "Come on; Collin and your mom are coming out."

Maria turned to face the bookstore and caught sight of her short, blond-haired younger brother coming out with a plastic bag on his arm and a woman with black, frizzy hair and green eyes following after him.

"Got everything?" Maria asked as the two came up to the car.

Mrs. Carlsdale nodded. "It took him a while, but we managed to find something." She looked down at the eight-year-old meaningfully.

Collin grinned. "They had a display of Go-Bots at the front of the store, so I managed to grab one." He held up the bag as proof of this.

"All right. Let's head home." Maria walked around to the passenger's side of the car and slipped into the back seat as Mrs. Carlsdale moved into the front seat.

Collin wriggled in to sit next to his sister, shutting the door as Frieda started the car. "The guy who helped us said he had a nephew in Jasper. Someone named Vince."

Maria stiffened upon hearing the name. Frieda glanced back through the rearview, but didn't take her full attention away from the road.

"Vince?" Maria repeated.

"Yeah." Collin nodded. "He said he'd managed to talk to him last night; Vince was unhappy about losing his house, but was glad he still had his hot rod. Whatever that is."

"You'd think that would be the name for someone," Frieda muttered. "He may as well name his car that."

"You've met him?" Collin asked, looking at Frieda in surprise.

"Another time, another place," Maria murmured quietly. A slight smile appeared on her face. "Judging from what he said, it sounds like he isn't any different."

"Won't know until we see him," Frieda replied. She turned a corner and started up another street. "If we see him."

"A pretty big if," Mrs. Carlsdale stated.

"Mom, you know that's not going to stop us from checking up on our friends," Maria spoke up boldly. "Citadel or no citadel, I'm going."

"They handled the earthquakes just fine," came the woman's reply. "You're not going."

"You're tied into this as much as I am."

The black-haired woman turned around in her seat and glared at her eldest daughter. "Do not bring me into this. I stopped being involved when Vector Prime brought us home."

"With all due respect, Katie, I don't think you did," Frieda replied, a knowing smirk appearing on her face. Maria's own expression mimicked the woman's seconds later.

"Now, you two -"

A beeping noise suddenly came from the dashboard, causing Mrs. Carlsdale to stop short. Everyone stared at the dashboard seconds before Frieda spoke in grave tones.

"We've got a Bot in the area."

Maria was instantly on the alert, looking out the window of the door next to her and peering out the back window. "Where, Wildfire?"

"They're behind us somewhere. Can you see them?"

"There's a yellow and black car over there," Collin spoke up suddenly, pointing out the back window.

Maria craned her head and caught sight of a striped sports car behind a red pickup truck. The windows were blacked out, making it difficult to see who was driving.

Or if there even was a driver.

Green script slid across Maria's vision, feeding her data on energy signatures before and after the others' were removed from the scanners. The data almost looked like...

Maria frowned, then turned around to face the front again. "Wildfire, do you have any Energon with you?"

"Yeah. I was planning on going to the usual place to meet with the others after dropping you off." Frieda didn't even respond to the sudden change of names.

"Could you go straight there and let the others know that there's a Bot? Something tells me something bad's going down if he's this far out."

"What are you talking about?" Mrs. Carlsdale demanded, turning her gaze to Maria.

"Who is it?" Collin asked, giving Maria a pleading expression.

"You'll see," Frieda stated calmly in reply. "And Katie, you might recognize the kid when we get there. War or no war, some mechs never change."

"Kid?" Collin repeated, cocking his head.

Maria gave a smirk. "Like she said, you'll see."

Frieda flipped a switch next to the radio as she turned the wheel again with one hand. "Inferno here. I've got some familiar company following my tail. Meet me at the usual place with an extra cube and some of Morgen's lunch."

There was a crackle of static, then a response with a teenage boy's voice.

::Bot with a kid?::

"Bot with a kid," Frieda confirmed.

::All right. We'll be on the lookout for you guys::

There was a click, and Frieda flipped the switch again before taking another turn. The red and orange car was now rolling down a street with houses on either side. As they passed two houses in particular, two vehicles - a light blue car, and a gray car with one red stripe and one yellow stripe coming over the driver's side - rolled off the driveways and started after the two sports cars, blocking the yellow and black one from making any sudden moves to get away.

"You said there's someone else in there?" Collin asked, turning around again to look out the rear window.

"Yup," came Frieda's reply.

"Do you know him?"

"Yes and no," Maria replied. Seeing the looks she was getting from both her mother and her brother, she added, "It's an alternate dimension thing."

"So you don't know him," Collin concluded.

"Not this one."

Frieda turned off the main road and rolled onto a dirt road that led into a nearby forest. The rest of the line of cars followed after her, leaving the paved road behind. After a couple minutes, the trees around them falling back to create a wide clearing of grass. Except for the large blue semi, the yellow moped, and the red and white ambulance, it almost looked like the place was untouched by technology.

Frieda stopped in the middle of the clearing, and the door popped open on their own. "All right. Everybody out."

Maria and Collin looked at each other, grinned, then scrambled out of the backseat, Collin taking his bag and newfound toy with him. Mrs. Carlsdale followed suit, although she was more dignified in her scrambling.

As soon as the passengers were out of the car, Frieda suddenly fizzled out in a flash of light. And then the car itself started to shift form, growing and expanding in size until a large figure stood with a red and orange flame design covering their armor. The frame of the figure was clearly feminine, despite the fact that the form was more bulky.

Maria looked up at the large robot, grinning, then looked over at the yellow and black sports car as the other vehicles that were already in the clearing - and the two other cars that had come along - started to transform.

The yellow and black car seemed to stiffen. Almost. Then one of the doors opened upwards - almost like a wing - and a small boy with spiky brown hair and a blue backpack came out. He looked up at the fiery robot in surprise and awe as the sports car he had just stepped out of transformed, as well.

Wide, blue optics looked around the clearing in shock, then settled on the small figures standing around the feet of the other large, robotic figures.

"N-no way..." the former car muttered in beeps and whirs. "You guys didn't leave Cybertron with us - we weren't told -"

"Optimus never told you what happened?" the red and orange femme asked, frowning.

"Told us what? That you disappeared during the raid on Kaon Prison?"

"There was more to that, Bumblebee."

"Bee, do you know these guys?" the brown-haired boy asked, looking up at the now-named Autobot.

Bumblebee blinked for a moment, then glanced down at the boy before looking back at the other robotic figures. "Yeah. These guys are Autobots, but I didn't think they'd managed to get here."

"Let's get introductions out of the way for the kid," the flame-covered femme stated. "This is my team. First Aid, our medic."

The red and white femme standing where the ambulance had been gave a nod.

"Jolt, our...mechanic."

The neon blue mech who had been the blue sports car smirked and gave a wave, his servo shooting off sparks.

"Shape-Change, spy and weapons expert."

The gray femme - with a single red stripe and a single yellow stripe running down one side of her form - gave a respectful nod to the brown-haired boy.

"Sparkseer, my second in command."

The mech who had formerly been the blue semi gripped the tall, gold spear in his servo and gave a nod. "You have a strong spirit, youngling. Even if it has been previously tainted with Dark Energon."

The boy stared at him in shock, causing Sparkseer to give an apologetic smile.

"My apologies," the mech stated. "I couldn't help but see the flare of your aura when we transformed."

"Whoa..." The boy turned his attention to the flame-covered femme. "And you? Who are you?"

"The name's Wildfire," the femme replied, smirking. "And you, kid?"

"Raf." There came a growling noise from the boy's stomach, and he looked down.

Maria let out a laugh. "We figured you might be hungry. Come on; Dad brought lunch for the lot of us."

"Even for the Bot," spoke a man with dark hair and bright, blue eyes. "Come over here, you two." He motioned for the pair to come over as Jolt pulled two cubes filled with glowing blue liquid from somewhere behind his back.

Bumblebee's optics widened, and he was over at Jolt's side in an instant. "Energon! How -"

"Joshua has a mine below his underground lab," Jolt explained. "I've been showing him how to refine it for some time now."

Bee accepted the cube handed to him and glugged it down. Maria caught sight of the guard on his mouth pulling back as the cube was emptied, but then she turned her attention to Raf as he accepted a sandwich from her father.

"Energon signals probably aren't the reason you're in the area, though," Maria stated, coming over to the boy.

Raf looked over, blinking in confusion. "And you are?"

Maria gave a sheepish smile. "My name's Maria. Sorry, I forgot to introduce my family and neighbors. Joshua lives on the edge of town and hangs out with Jolt most of the time. You could say that he's our inventor, I guess, considering that he's managed to make an underground lab out here."

She motioned to a teenage boy with indigo eyes who was looking over a tablet with a frown on his face.

"His cousin, Khrista, lives across the street and is watched over by SC."

Maria motioned to a girl with light brown hair and blue eyes, who was sitting on one of Shape-Change's feet, eating a sandwich.

Raf blinked, then his eyes widened. "Is that a...yellow Master Ball on her shirt?"

Maria looked down at the boy in surprise. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"She was all over the news not too long ago - something happened..." Raf turned his wide-eyed gaze to Maria. "Does that mean you're -"

"Maybe," Maria replied coolly, chuckling. "Let me finish introductions first, and I'll tell you whether you're right or not."

The next person Maria pointed out was a tall young man with dark brown hair and blue eyes standing near Sparkseer. He looked over when Maria pointed and raised a hand in greeting.

"That's my older brother, Matthew. Sparkseer's been with him since he was six - and Wildfire's been my guardian since I was five. Next eldest is Liz, my sister, who's been spending time with First Aid."

A girl with dark hair and in a dark blue jacket let out a laugh at a joke that had been told her by Collin, who was standing next to a short, yellow mech with glowing blue Energon lines that were all over his form.

"And then there's the youngest of my family, Collin, and his friend Coil. He's been hanging around with Wildfire's team, but he's still a bit young to be going out on missions."

"Young?" Raf repeated, blinking in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Let's just say the kid is something new Shockwave cooked up and has been growing from Mini-Con size ever since," Wildfire stated grimly from above the two. "What Maria said is right, though - Energon can't be the only reason you came out to the Midwest."

Raf looked a little nervous. "Uh...yeah. It isn't. You saw the thing in Nevada, right?"

"It's been all over the news," Maria's father replied grimly. "I'm Morgen Carlsdale, Maria's father, and you have no idea how hard it's been to keep her here."

"Dad, you know these guys better than I do," Maria responded. "And you know that something bad's going down when those fusion cannons went off!" She motioned in a direction off over the trees wildly, glaring at her father.

"I don't know if you'd be able to help," Raf spoke up. He looked like he wasn't quite sure of what to make of Maria's outburst. "But if you could help me find everybody else -"

"Find them?" Wildfire frowned. "You split up?"

"We kinda had to," Bumblebee replied. "The Cons knew where our base was, so Optimus wasn't about to let us stick around."

"They knew where your base was?!" Maria yelled in alarm. "Primus above, things are going downhill fast!"

Raf looked at Maria in alarm, while Bumblebee's optics widened. "You...you understand him?"

"A part of my heritage." Maria shook her head, then turned her full attention to the boy. "Any idea where your allies are?"

"...one of them is in a junkyard. We were trying to find our way there when Bee saw Wildfire and decided to tail her." Raf motioned to the flame-covered femme.

"Junkyard?" Wildfire glanced over at Jolt. "Don't you and Joshua usually go to one of those to get parts?"

"Yeah, we do," came Joshua's reply. The indigo eyed teenager was finally looking up from his tablet at the goings-on around him, and he had quite the thoughtful look on his face. "It's actually not that far from here."

Wildfire gave a nod. "All right. Jolt, take Joshua and lead Bee and Raf to the junkyard. Aid, go with them in case whoever it is needs medical attention."

The neon blue mech and red and white femme gave a nod and said, "Right."

Bee snorted. "I don't think Ratchet's going to need medical attention."

Everyone looked at the yellow and black sports car in surprise.

"Ratchet?" First Aid asked softly. "He's there?"

Raf looked over at the red and white femme with some confusion. "Uh...yeah. Do you know him?"

First Aid gave a nod. "Yes...but it's been so long..."

"You should probably stay here, then," Wildfire stated, turning to look at the medic. "And Jolt and I will go and see about bringing him back here."

"I'm coming, too," Maria stated quickly.

"As am I."

Maria turned her head and locked her gaze with her father. "Dad? Why would you -"

"You forget - I know the bots even more than you do," Morgen replied lightly, smirking.

Raf blinked in confusion upon hearing the adult's statement. Maria, however, gave a wide grin.

"Do you think he knows you're here?" Maria asked in a playful manner.

"Well, we'll find out, won't we?" Morgen's responded in kind. He looked up at Wildfire with a mischievous grin, which was returned by the femme.

Bumblebee looked at the two of them in complete confusion, Raf mimicking his expression as Wildfire shifted down into her alt mode.

Maria watched the black and yellow mech for a moment, considering what exactly she could say while her father climbed into the passenger's side of Wildfire's alt mode. After a moment, however, the Reploid grinned and asked, "Do they still use those code names that you picked up on Cybertron, Bee?"

Bumblebee jolted out of surprise, his gears whirring in response to Maria's statement. "Code names? What -" He cut himself off as his optics widened. "No way...but that can't be possible!"

"What do you mean, Bee?" Raf asked, looking up at the Autobot in confusion.

Bumblebee spluttered as Maria slipped into the backseat of Wildfire's alt form; she could hear Jolt shifting behind her as she shut the door behind her.

"You just had to bait him, didn't you?" Wildfire asked dryly as the holoform appeared in the driver's seat.

"Well, why not?" Maria responded. "I mean, they're going to learn sooner or later because of Dad and Ratchet, aren't they?"

Outside the car, Bumblebee shifted down to his alt mode and let Raf climb inside. The boy looked a little bit confused as to what was happening around him.

Wildfire gave a hum in response. "But that doesn't mean you have to tell him now." Her engine started to rumble, and the Autobot started moving forward. As though that movement had given the others a signal of some kind, Jolt's sports car mode rolled out in front of Wildfire and out of the clearing, Bumblebee on his heels, and Wildfire herself bringing up the rear.

"What makes you say that?" Morgen asked, raising an eyebrow at the holoform. "Were you planning on keeping it a secret?"

Wildfire smirked. "I wanted to surprise them."

::I doubt that we are going to be keeping it a secret for long:: Jolt commented over the comm-link. ::Considering that we are about to find the Doc, well...we just might be able to find the others:: He sounded humored as he spoke his next statement. ::Maybe Jazz is already on the planet, eh, Wildfire?::

Wildfire's holoform stiffened a little while Maria gained an eager expression.

"It would be cool to see him again," Maria commented. "The last time I saw him, it was an alternate version of him."

"The last time I saw him was back on Cybertron," Morgen countered. "And I'd like to be able to meet Mr. Coolsville again." He grinned hugely while Maria let out a laugh at the statement.

Hope you don't mind me stopping here for the first chapter of this. :)

See you guys later!