Miko sat her arms folded over her chest a scowl firm on her face. This was stupid she thought. Detention was defiantly not her ideal fun, they didn't even allow her to wear her ear buds. Everything was boring without the musical accompaniment of Slash Monkey she decided staring out the window where Bulkhead sat waiting. Her eyes darted to the teacher who had foolishly fallen asleep. Her lips formed the kind of smile that would make most people think she was psychotic. She slipped off her sneakers and wiggled her sockless toes. Who said you had to wear socks with shoes anyways? She picked up the sneakers her nose wrinkling at the horrid smell wafting from the shoes. She tiptoed over to the window which was plenty large enough to climb out of and silently pried it open. She slid out her skinny body easily fitting through the gap. She landed on her feet and winced. She had neglected the fact that there was rose bushes outside the windows probably to keep kids from doing what she had done. Hopping out of the bushes and collecting her shoes which had somehow gotten loose from her grasp and ran to Bulkhead her feet leaving small traces of blood on the green grass. She opened the door and sat down on the seats looking over her bloody feet. She picked thorns from her heel as Bulkhead gasped.

"Miko! Why are you bleeding?" he said worry clouding his voice. Miko waved her hand,

"Oh just jumped out of a window onto some thorns, no biggie."

"Miko!" The girl ignored him and pushed on his dash.

"C'mon we gotta get to the base dude!" she yelled her eyes wandering to the window where she was certain the teacher would appear and demand her return to the dreaded detention room. Bulkhead started his engine and pulled out onto the road.

"Miko you have to stop skipping detention!" He said sternly.

"Aw you don't care do you big bot? Besides I'd rather hang out with you guys than stay locked up in school." She said the word school like it left a sour taste on her tongue.

"Miko school is important you can't just write off like it's meaningless!" Bulkhead insisted.

"Whatever. Hey can you put on some Slash Monkey?" Miko replied. Bulkhead sighed and turned on his radio searching the stations until he found the song that both Miko and himself liked. He drove on letting Miko rock out to the song to her heart's desire his worry for her education stopped his full enjoyment of the song.

Fifteen minutes later they pulled into the main room of the bunker Miko hopping right out and running over to the catwalks. She smiled when she spied both and Jack and Raf already hanging out by the TV.

"Hey guys!" she called. Jack turned and waved his hello, Raf however was too absorbed in whatever it was he was doing. Miko slapped him on the back and he turned to look at her an annoyed expression on his face.

"Miko! I was working on my math!" He cried staring down at the page full of complicated problems.

"Aw C'mon Raf! There's so much other stuff to do!" Miko said hanging upside down from the railing. Raf rolled his eyes and continued to do his homework. Jack shook his head.

"Didn't you have detention?" he asked. Miko waved her hand in a that's-not-important gesture still hanging from the railing.

"Yeah But I got let out early." Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Sure you did, well I'm going to start on my own homework." He grabbed his back pack and rooted through it looking for his assignment. Ratchet who had been working on something came over and plucked Miko from the railing. "Hey!" she protested as the medic set her back on the catwalk.

"I don't need another patient around here." he said a hard edge to his voice. At once Miko felt guilty, Arcee had been injured in the last battle with the decepticons. The motorcycle bot in question was currently sitting on the med berth her head in her servos and a bored looking expression on her face. Miko smiled she knew that look anywhere, since she had long ago mastered the look of pure boredom. She raced down the stairs and over to Arcee.

"Hi!' she called. Arcee looked at her and sighed.

"Hi Miko, what do you want?" Miko frowned,

"Only to go out for a drive or something, I mean you can't fight but you can still drive right?" Arcee smiled.

"Yeah…I'd love to except the Hatchet will probably have my hide if I leave base." Miko pouted her arms crossing over her chest. Then an idea struck her. She ran off looking for the one bot who might help her.

"Hey Bumblebee?" Miko questioned coming up from behind the yellow scout. Bumblebee tilted his head and beeped a reply. Miko shrugged, "Dunno what you're saying but I need your help, me and Arcee want to go for a drive so can you like distract Ratchet or something?" Bumblebee frowned and thought about how bored and sad Arcee had been looking. He wanted to make her feel better and going out for a drive might do that for her. He nodded and Miko let out a shout of excitement. "Yes! Ok go tell Ratchet your voice box is hurting bad or something." she pointed back down the hallway towards where Ratchet was. Bumblebee nodded.

"I…..Can….do…th-that." he wheezed grinding noises coming from his throat and lots of static. Miko looked at him surprised.

"I didn't mean you should actually use it!" she cried. He gave her a smile but his optics showed the pain talking had given him. He walked away his voice box still making static and buzzing noises. Miko ran after him and over to Arcee who had watched them come into the room.

"Bee what did you do?" she asked the yellow bot. He shrugged and Ratchet came over a scowl on his faceplates.

"Tried to talk the slagger!" He said angrily. Bumblebee clicked and beeped which only made Ratchet madder. "I don't want to hear it! You are coming with me!" he dragged Bumblebee away to his medical room that was tucked away deep inside the base. Mio turned to Arcee,

"C'mon this is where we make a daring escape!" Arcee smiled and transformed for once so focused on getting out that she didn't think about anything else, not even the consequences.

The two girls rode far from the base dust kicking up from behind Arcee's wheels. Miko smiled the wind tousling her hair, she loved the speed and the wind and the feel of excitement that flowed through her. Acree was also enjoying it, it felt good to be out again, but it would be better if there was some cons around to blow up. Not that she wanted any decepticons to come barreling down from the sky, she was already in enough pain and she didn't want to endanger Miko. They rode without talking, how could they when the sound of Acree's engine roared in Miko's ears? Arcee pulled over to a small mesa which still towered over their heads. She transformed grabbing Miko in her servo. The girl looked up at the dusty mesa,

"Looks a lot like…you know." she said thinking it not the best idea to say that their base looked like this mesa. If there were any cons watching them, well those creeps didn't need to blow up their base. Acree simply nodded and settled herself in the shadow of the mesa. Miko jumped off the motorcycle's servo and landed on the sand below. She sat next to the giant autobot her face tanned by the sun and hands shaking from the joy of speed.

"Arcee how do you feel?" she asked.

"I'm fine. How are you?" Arcee replied. Miko shrugged.

"I'm good really pumped from the ride though! You're so fast!" her smile was contagious and Arcee found herself grinning back.

"You bet! I'm not as fast as Bee though." Miko nodded seriously.

"Of course, since Bee's the fastest thing on wheels, or so Raf tells me." Arcee laughed.

"More like Bumblebee told Raf, the scout's been saying that for as long as he's been a muscle car." Miko giggled.

"His car mode is so flashy and tough but Bee's a big sweetie." she said, "but Bulkheads got a heart of gold. And he likes smashing stuff!" the girl's eyes lit up at the thought of her guardian crushing a con's helm into a pancake. Arcee nodded and leaned her head back against the mesa's wall.

"Cliff was a joker." she muttered. Miko was surprised, Arcee rarely talked about Cliffjumper anymore. Miko had never met him, but she had heard lots about him from Bulkhead and Ratchet, but never Arcee. When asked Arcee would turn away and tell them to leave her alone.

"Is that what you liked about him?" Miko asked carefully.

"Yeah and the fact I could count on him. We went through a lot of bad stuff together…and I wasn't there for him when those Cons got him." She looked away not wanting Miko to see how hurt and guilty she was. Now Miko was not a gentle person, or a wise one but she was caring. She put her hand on Acree's ped and looked up into the blue optics of her friend.

"His death isn't your fault and you can't blame yourself for it." Miko said the words coming out strong but raw. Arcee frowned, the way Miko said those words indicated something had happened with her, some death or loss she regrets.

"Who did you lose?" she couldn't help but ask. Miko looked away her answer a whisper.

"My brother…" The words hung in the air and Arcee's optics widened.

"Your brother?" Miko nodded.

"Yeah we were at home and then this man broke in. He had a gun and was going to shoot me but my brother jumped in the way and he was killed." Her voice broke and tears spilled down her cheeks. Arcee's optics hardened as she thought about all that she had lost and how much Miko had lost. She picked up the sobbing girl and curled her in her servos.

"Miko it's not your fault and what happened is something that you could not control, as was Cliff's death. We should move on…together." Miko nodded rubbing her eyes roughly. It did no good to Ari if she was bawling her eyes out over him. He would want her to move on. She took a deep breath.

"Ok." They sat in silence for a while watching the sun dip lower and lower in the sky and then they heard the rumble of engines, familiar engines. The two looked at each other and Miko muttered.

"Uh oh."

"What the frag were you thinking!" Ratchet yelled at Arcee as he checked her over in the med bay.

"It was fine Ratchet and I'm mostly healed." Arcee countered her arms crossed.

"Not enough!" Ratchet snapped back his scanner sweeping over her body. He breathed a sigh of relief to know that Arcee's condition was the same, if not better, as before. Miko sat on the couch getting chewed out by Bulkhead.
"Miko you both could have gotten hurt!" He said. "And by that I mean cons!" Miko shrugged and glanced at Bumblebee who had already gotten the wrath of two very pissed off autobots. He smiled at her even though he sported a nasty dent from Ratchet's wrench. "Miko listen to me!" Bulkhead pleaded but he knew it was a lost cause, getting Miko to listen was like trying to herd cats. The girl nodded.

"I get it! I get it! You're sounding like Ratchet, all nagging and grumpy!"

"Hey!" Ratchet protested from across the room.

"It's true!" Miko yelled back and Ratchet scowled. Arcee hopped off the med berth and walked over to join her team mates and smiled at Miko. Bulkhead frowned what had gone on between his human charge and teammate? He decided it didn't matter, if Miko and Arcee had shared personal stuff it wasn't any of his business, but he still felt a twang of jealousy. Miko loved him and trusted him, but she'd never told him anything big, or deeply personal like she seemed to have done with Arcee. Maybe it wasn't Miko's problem, maybe Miko was helping Arcee with something. In any case Bulkhead shouldn't be jealous. He scooped Miko up into his large servo,

"Want to sneak into a monster truck show again?" he asked her. Miko smiled brightly her pink tipped pigtails bouncing as she nodded.

"Yes! You got brain rust big-bot? Course I wanna go!" Bulkhead smiled and transformed ready to roll out his favorite human cheering him to go faster. This was going to be interesting.