AN: This was co-written by me and brave kid.
Disclaimer: Neither me nor brave kid owns Transformers Prime, Beast Wars, Beast Wars II, or Beast Wars Neo.
"Prime!"
The single word made Miko's wild guitar riff fall silent. "No warning?" she muttered, half to herself. "He just barges in all the time, like he owns the place – wait, he practically does."
Special Agent William Fowler was fuming – whether directly at Optimus or at something one of the Autobots did, who knew?
"Yes, Agent Fowler?" Optimus kept his cool – like he always did.
"The 'cons are storming a relay station and half my men are getting cut down."
So it wasn't something the Autobots did this time.
Ratchet shook his head from where he was working.
Bulkhead looked up from lobbing with Bumblebee. "What's a relay station?"
"A transmitter which repeats or transponds the signal of another radio or television station," Ratchet replied, still not paying attention.
"Where is this relay station exactly, Agent Fowler?" Optimus asked politely.
"Kansas."
"A more specific location will be required if you expect them to arrive via GroundBridge." Ratchet still did not look up from his work.
"Coordinates, Ratchet. Do you by chance mean coordinates?" Fowler asked irritably.
Miko shook her head and went back to playing her guitar, strumming a few chords and then writing them down on the sheet in front of her.
After she was sure Ratchet had calibrated the GroundBridge, Miko put her electric on its stand and switched off her amp. The Autobots were just getting ready to leave.
"Hey, Bulk!" she called as he guardian turned to follow Optimus and the others through the swirling green-gold vortex.
"Yeah, Miko?" Bulkhead stopped, turning around.
"Bash some 'Cons' heads in for me, will ya?"
Her green friend laughed appreciatively. "You'd make a great Wrecker. Sure, Miko, I'll see what I can do." With that, he left.
Ratchet looked at her suspiciously. "You're not going to try and follow them are you?" he asked warily.
"I've got homework to do," the Japanese girl almost snapped. But she said it more kindly than she normally would have. She tossed a stray lock of pink-streaked hair over her shoulder as she walked over to the table and opened her backpack. Humming a tune under her breath, she pulled out a notebook and calculator and began working.
Ratchet raised an optic ridge but shrugged her comment off. Jack had said earlier that week that they had finals coming up. Rafael had later explained that finals were big tests that required a lot of studying. So, it was safe to assume that was the reason for her strange behavior.
Miko glanced over her shoulder to make sure Ratchet was focused on her work once more. "Docbot's distracted," she whispered. "And the boys should notice I'm actually working right about…"
"Miko, are you feeling alright?" Jack asked. "You're doing homework. You never do homework."
"…now," Miko finished. In answer to Jack's comment, she said, "My parents called me last night to say they're going to pull me out of the program if I don't ace the finals." Which, of course, was a complete lie.
"Oh, well, if you need any help, just ask, okay?"
"Sure, Jack." Time to set the next phase of her plan in motion.
Pretending to be thinking intently and something had just occurred to her, she called out to Ratchet. "Hey, Docbot, are there supposed to be grenades in the Energon Storage Bay?"
Ratchet's optics flew wide and he rushed out, forgetting to lock down the access panel to the GroundBridge.
Miko practically jumped down the ladder and climbed up the one near the access panel. She had spent the last several weeks studying how it worked for just this one plan. Deftly, she reprogrammed in the previous coordinates and pulled down the lever, activating the GroundBridge with a loud mechanized whirr.
"Miko, where did you see these grenades?" Ratchet's voice came from across the base.
"Near the center of the room. Should they have had a blinking red light on them?" She yelled back, relishing in the medic's panicked gasp and the sound of his hurried footsteps as he searched for the nonexistent live grenades.
Jack climbed down the ladder, Raf close behind. "What are you doing? You said your parents would pull you out of the program!"
Miko shrugged as she leaped down the ladder and ran toward the strangely blue-white vortex. "I lied."
She heard two sets of footsteps behind her as she raced through the GroundBridge, heading for the gold light that steadily grew larger as she advanced.
The first thing Miko noticed was the heat as she stepped out of the GroundBridge.
Red sand blew across the barren landscape, obscuring most of the three humans' surroundings. The yellow sun beat down on them mercilessly, leading them to realize something.
"We're still in Jasper," Miko noted irritably.
"That's a good thing, right?" Raf asked.
"Depends," Jack said, "on whether it's easier to walk back to town or call and see if Ratchet can Bridge us back to base."
Miko pulled out her cellphone, dialing in the frequency necessary to patch into base. "Hey, Docbot," she said nervously. "We're kind of… sorta…" It was then she noticed the heavy static on the other end of the line. "Scrap."
"Can't get through?" Jack guessed.
Miko shook her head, replacing her phone in the pouch on her belt.
Raf thought for a moment. "It could be that the GroundBridge scrambled our cellphones. It is based on energy, really, so it is possible."
Jack nodded. "In that case, we'd better try ours too."
But they too had no success.
Miko muttered her frustration in a stream of fluent Japanese that did not sound too friendly. After she had finished, she looked much happier. "I guess we should start walking then," she said.
"I guess," Raf agreed.
The three kids' homes were in different sections of town, so once they got back to Jasper, they had to split up.
They weren't prepared for what awaited them at home.
Jack opened the garage, surprised to see his mom's car home already. "Mom? You here?"
June opened the door leading inside. "Oh, Jack. You're home early. I thought your shift didn't end for another hour." She was still wearing her white lab coat, and her blue-green scrubs appeared more soiled than usual.
"I-I got let out early," Jack stammered, surprised.
As they walked back inside, the first thing Jack noticed were the wire cages scattered around the house. He bent down and picked one up, peering through the mesh so he could see the fluffy white and black shape inside. A rabbit.
A flurry of barking greeted them as they rounded the corner into the kitchen. A large black-brown dog jumped up and barked happily, his pink tongue lolling.
"Down, Ray," June said, patting the dog on the head.
"Uh, Mom, since when do we have pets?" Jack asked, beyond confused.
June looked at him like he had gone mad for a moment. "What kind of vet doesn't own animals, Jack?"
Raf opened the door to his house using the key he had gotten just before he met Bumblebee. Pilar was waiting for him inside.
"You're late, mi hermano. We were just about to have dinner without you," she said reproachfully. She ran down the hall, leaning around the corner. "Mama, Papa, Rafael es el hogar!"
Their father's voice rang out strongly from the dining room. "Venir aquí. ¡Tus hermanos están dando hambre!"
"Sí, Papa," Raf called back. He followed Pilar into the dining room and sat down, glancing in surprise at the numerous organic fruits and vegetables, as well as the salad that surmised most of the food at the table.
"Whatever happened to pizza?" he murmured to himself.
Miko threw open the door, running past her host parents in an effort to avoid being caught.
"Hold it right there, young lady. Since when are we allowed to run in the house?" A male voice called from behind her.
Miko's eyes went wide in surprise. "Dad?" She skidded to a halt just in front of her door and spun around.
"Miko, you better not be skipping detention again," Her dad said, his black hair smoothly combed and in his usual blue business suit.
"No, sir. I was just hanging around with some friends of mine and decided to come home," Miko stammered, still in shock.
Her mother appeared from around the corner, a fat ginger cat in her arms. "Miko, I hope you brought your grades up like you promised. You do remember that finals are this week, right?"
"Yes." Miko finally got over her shock and ran up to hug both her parents in turn. "I missed you guys. But what are you doing in Jasper? We live in Tokyo."
Her parents laughed, smiling down at her fondly. "Sweetheart, we haven't lived in Japan since before your older brother Shirako was born," her father said.
Miko could see in their eyes they weren't kidding. She bolted into her room, fumbling for the house phone. She quickly dialed Jacks number, praying he'd pick up.
"Miko?"
The Japanese girl gave a sigh of relief when she heard her friend's voice on the phone.
"Yeah, it's me. I think we've got a problem."
"You're telling me," Jack said. He sounded out of breath. "Get down, Ray."
"Who's Ray?"
"My dog, apparently. Why'd you call?"
"Something's weird here. My parents – not my host parents, my real parents – are here. They just said we've lived here all my life."
Jack sighed heavily. "We should probably talk somewhere."
"Can you call Raf and see if he can meet us at the park tomorrow at five? I've got to deal with my family now."
"Sure, Miko. I've got to deal with my dog right now." As Jack hung up, Miko could hear him say something else. "Get down, Ray!"
Miko hung the phone up, reaching for her notebook and drawing pencils when she heard the front door open.
"Hey, Miko," called an unfamiliar voice. "You ready for that ride I promised you?"
Miko realized that it must be her brother. She struggled to remember what her parents had called him. "Almost… um… ah… Shirako! One second!" She looked around for her backpack, and then remembered she left it back at base. But as she leaned down to pick up a pencil she dropped, she saw it lying inconspicuously on the carpet. Quickening her pace, she shoved the notebook and pencils inside.
"Miko, hurry up! I don't have all day!"
"I'm coming!"
Miko burst out the door to come face-to-face with a teenager who looked almost exactly like her father. The main difference was his sense of style. He had spiky black hair and a white jacket with navy blue detailing.
"Um…" For once Miko was at a loss for words.
"Come on," Shirako said. "We have to go."
He led Miko outside to a sleek car that matched his jacket.
"Sweet!" Miko looked over the car and noticed how it seemed to be built for speed.
Shirako was already inside. "Hop in, Mik. I found those old pictures you asked for."
Miko opened the door and buckled herself in just as Shirako handed her a skinny, leather-bound picture album.
The engine started up, and soon they were cruising around town, no particular goal in sight.
Miko flipped through the pictures and found one in particular that interested her. It was a photo of her grandparents standing in front of a house in downtown Jasper, her parents and a young Shirako with them.
"Hey, Shirako," she said, her fingers tracing the edges of the picture.
"Yeah, Mik?"
"Why did Mom and Dad move here from Tokyo?"
"You've asked this question a million times." Shirako looked exasperated. "But I'll tell you again. Our family has lived here for three generations. But before I was born, Dad thought it would be easier for business if he moved the company back to Tokyo – where it started. It wasn't. In Japan, there were too many companies in the same industry there already. So they stayed a year or two and then moved back. We've been here ever since."
Miko looked at the picture again, a thought forming inside her head. There had to be a reason for why everything was so different.
This had all started when she went through the GroundBridge. Just like the time they ended up in another dimension with Zombie Skyquake.
Another Dimension – of course.
This was another Shadowzone!
