At first, it was just a sore throat. Couldn't speak, it was so bad. But she didn't have strep. It went away after a while.

Then, she went deaf in one ear. Couldn't hear anything. Not even that annoying ringing. She panicked and fled to the hospital. The doctor found nothing wrong, so she went home seventy dollars poorer. Hearing came back in that ear, but cut off in the other. And oddly enough, she could hear better afterwards.

It continued with her sight (she refused to leave the house that time), taste (that came back, but wasn't the same), her chest, her gut, her head (she had damn near photographic memory now! She loved it!), but it wasn't until she woke up with a non-organic hand, did she realize what had happened, though she still didn't know why.

She didn't know the same thing happened to Maggie and Sam, either.

"RATCHET!!!" that's odd. Normally you wouldn't use 'panic' and 'Mikaela' in the same sentence.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" she screeched, waving her paw at him.

Wait.

What?

"Mikaela, why is it, instead of an organic hand, you have a mechanical paw, and of Cybertronian model, no less?" the Search-and-Rescue vehicle asked, attempting to keep his cool.

"YOU TELL ME!! IS THIS AN EXPERIMENT? 'CAUSE YOU BETTER HOPE IT'S NOT!!"

"No, Mikaela, this is not of my doing." His internal phone rang; a human number. "One moment, I have a call."

'Yes Maggie?'

'Uh, I have a question for you. What happens when you make up with extremely sensitive wings? Like, jet wings, not bird wings. I'm not an angel, ya know, and this is really weird.'

Oh. Uh. Not good!

'Shall I have Jazz pick you up?'

'That'd be nice, but I dunno if I'd fit in him.'

'Jazz is good with odd situations, he can make you fit.'

'Alright… and, uh, don't tell Keller about this until we know what's happening, okay?'

'I will not, Maggie.'

"Mikaela, this has also happened to Maggie. Is there anything you can think of that could have caused this?

"Hell no! If I knew, I'd be asking how to STOP this, not HOW it happened!" after flailing her arms about, she fell back, and let out a very metallic bird-cry of pain, not agony, but pain, yes.

"Shit…" she mumbled, rubbing her head that had hit the wall when she fell back pretty hard. But she froze, rubbed her head again, and peeled off her skin with a drawn-out flinch. The CMO watched on with horrified, but curious fascination, unable to uproot himself from where he was standing.

"Okay, that was honestly, the weirdest thing I've ever done." She muttered, staring at the hair on the- her!- skin.

'Oh no! It's Sam calling! What does he want? What does he waaaant?!?"

She flipped her phone open,

"Hallo? Sam? Are you okay?" she asked, rapid-fire style before he could say anything.

'Well, I was sort of wondering if it's a good thing when scratching your cheek, skin peels off. It's a little confusing, and I really hope this is a horrible dream. And big metal jet wings! Are those normal?'

"Yeah, well, now I'm half bald. I hit my head, and it started peeling off. Tell me, is your cheek metal?" she asked after feeling spiky ridges on her head.

'Yep!'

Ratchet face-palmed.

"RATCHET!! You had better explain why my charge suddenly has Seeker wings!" oh lovely. Ironhide.

"It has caught Captain Lennox also?" he asked the storming Topkick.

"Yes! Now fix it!" Ratchet sighed. Oh, how he wished he could bash Ironhide's head in. maybe then he'd think clearer!

"If I don't know what made them like this, HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO FIX IT?!?!?!?!?" the Autobot CMO raised a transformer-sized wrench, as if to hit Ironhide. Ironhide ducked, even when Ratchet lowered the near-weapon-of-mass-destruction. When he was calm enough to speak without snapping, he went to make a Very Important Announcement.

"I'll run a few scans, to see what has happened. However…" he trailed off.

"However…?" Will asked, scratching at his arms in a frenzy.

"I will wait for- never mind." Bumblebee and Jazz walked in, Bee with a frantic Sam, and Jazz holding- wait, how the hell could Maggie FLY already?

But Ironhide beat him to voicing his thoughts, was he Psychic? Hmm… on his next checkup…

"Uh… Programming? I dunno, after I clawed my skin off my feet, I jumped up and, well… yeah." Was her explanation. Everyone but Will and Sam shook their heads, who were, ironically, also shaving the skin from their lowest extremity.

"Anyway, However…?" Will asked again, without looking up from his methodical hand movements, each strike shredding skin onto Ironhide's hand.

"However, I do not believe I could reverse this, ever."

"WHAT?!?!" ooh, nice chorus, did they practice?

"Metal is much more resilient to change than carbon-based skin." Ratchet deadpanned, and while everyone was still in shock, began scanning Mikaela. He frowned, turned to Maggie and repeated with the rest.

"Is there something wrong?" Maggie asked, waking from the shock first. Thank god she had perched on the berth before Ratchet told her that. She lifted up again and drifted over to Ratchet, not trusting her feet, and having an odd jailed feeling on the ground. She hovered next to the CMO's head.

"Well, all four of you turn up as younglings, Mikaela, Sam, you, and Will, in that order, and definitely not Homo sapiens! And Will actually looks to be not a youngling, but an almost-adult."

"Oh…"

"And nothing on my scanners shows anything that even suggests you've ever been human, except for that layer of skin all over."

A dark, evil laugh echoed through the empty room, almost low enough to be mistaken as a bass guitar. The mech at the screen stared with morbid amusement. Everything seemed to be working out just fine, after all.

'Master, the experiment has gone as planned, well, except for the size issue.'

"I know, solider. Prepare more for the rest of the NEST team, a taste of their own medicine indeed. And when they're on my side, not only will I be able to stop my enemy in their tracks, our race will not become extinct!"

'it is a brilliant idea, lord, but what will happen if they become suspicious, or Primus forbid, find out what we are doing?'

"Blank it from their memories. None of them are smart enough to keep an extra copy, the loyal fools."

'As you command, my lord. Blackout out!'

A second peal of gravelly bass guitar pounded the walls, the mech swiveling in his chair insanely, optics glittering in excitement.

So you like?

Yes-no-maybe-so?

It wasn't hard to write,

I'd like to know!