Chapter 1

Jack, Miko, and Raf sat on the couch playing video games in the Autobot base. Ratchet was the only bot to be found. The others had left via ground bridge while Jack distracted Miko. They left Ratchet to babysit and activate the ground bridge as usual. He kept himself busy researching and inputting data on the synthetic Energon formula. It helped him to ignore the humans.

All seemed to be well minus Miko's perpetual pouting about not being able to follow Bulkhead. Ratchet was in the middle of modifying the formula when an error message popped up on one of the screens. Then, one after another were coming up, each making an obnoxious beep. In seconds, all the screens were covered. Ratchet worked frantically to fix it all but it just ended up with him slamming his fist in frustration at the wall.

"Ratchet, are you OK?"

It was Raf. He had left the couch to see what the noise was all about. Ratchet turned back to the computers. "It's these infernal machines! Human technology is just so... Primitive..."

"Would you like any help?"

"No!"

Ratchet looked around to see if the other two humans were paying attention. Jack and Miko were too busy playing some fighting game. He leaned over to Raf and quietly asked, "Do you think you can fix it?"

"It's possible. Let me take a look."

Raf pulled out the laptop from his backpack and hooked it up to the system. He took a seat on the floor and started typing. Ratchet watched him intensely hoping to return to his research soon. Raf's forehead scrunched up as he accelerated his typing. "This is not good."

"What? What's not good?"

"Well, it's a computer virus. Normally I can fix these but I've never seen anything like this. It is obvious that someone hacked into the system and planted it though. The best I can do is quarantine it temporarily."

"Why only temporarily?"

"I don't know how to stop it. It'll eventually eat through any firewall code I use."

Raf was eventually able to quarantine the virus but knew someone else had to be brought in. When Optimus and the others returned, Ratchet told them of the problem. It was decided that Agent Fowler needed to be informed. Fowler was surprised to hear the Autobots needed help. He called a specialist and escorted him to the base. He worked while Fowler spoke with everyone else.

"So our little computer whiz couldn't fix the issue, eh?" he chuckled. "You've always kept things working up until now."

Raf just looked away and sighed. He was good but still...

The specialist growled in frustration. Fowler returned to his side. "What's the problem, Stan?"

"I can't get rid of this thing. It just keeps growing..."

"There has to be something you can do."

"Just beef up what the kid's already done. That's it."

Optimus joined in, "So we need to salvage what we can and move it to back-up."

"But Optimus what about the rest of the data?" asked Ratchet. "The only part of the synthetic Energon research left is what we originally retrieved from Bulkhead."

"Then you will have to start over and work with the physical left over samples, Old Friend."

"We don't have that kind of time –"

"And we will lose more time if all the data is infected."

This silenced Ratchet but Raf took his place. "I know someone who might be able to fix this."

Bumblebee chimed in with his R2-D2 beeping.

"Yeah Bee. She's awesome." Raf looked back to Optimus and Fowler. "It would mean that another civilian is brought in."

The specialist laughed, "Someone who can do better than our department? Impossible. We would already have this person working for us."

"That may be, sir," Raf replied, "But she prefers to stay under the radar."

Optimus stepped forward, "Is this person someone we can trust?"

"Yes, of course."

Raf then thought to himself, "She's the only one who has never forgotten me before coming here."

"So who is this mystery girl?" Fowler asked.

"She's my oldest sister. She was the one who taught me about coding."

"Then we'll run a quick background check and make arrangements," Fowler decided.

"In the meantime, we will back up the uninfected data," Optimus said while looking over at Ratchet.

Fowler and the specialist moved to pack up their equipment when Raf approached them. "Agent Fowler? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"When everything goes through, would Bee and I be allowed to go talk to her and then bring her here?"

Fowler smiled and said, "I'll see what I can do."