Chapter 1

Breaking Point

2 Days Earlier

Sapphire could not take it anymore. She HAD to get out, run away if needed. Her mind was racing through all of the excuses she managed to compile throughout the years, searching for a way to avoid any more "guardian" duties.

"Well Tom, what's the situation over here in the States?" Sapphire hastily demanded her senior intelligence officer, a 5' 9" worn torn ex-Marine, Thomas Alder. Easily in his late fifties, this was one person you would not want to piss off. His graying short black hair, emphasized his personality; a hard ass. Briefing was defiantly not one of his favorite duties, but by the look of his scarred, and ragged face, Thomas did not take any one of his responsibilities light heartedly.

His dimmed blue eyes narrowed slightly at Sapphires sudden outburst. "Accordin' to NSA, all that seems ta be a problem is the heightened Decepticon activity over in the East Coast, but the Autobots stationed in the U.S. should be able to—"

"Should is the key word there Tom." Sapphire bluntly stated.

"Somethin' botherin' ya Sapphire? Cuz ya usually never nip back at others unless somethin's on yer mind. And don't try ta argue either, I can read ya like a book." Authority dominated Thomas's voice. All Sapphire could do was accept her fate and throw a lopsided grin towards Tom.

"Intel put you in charge for a reason." She sarcastically stated. "Yeah, I've got many things on my mind, no doubt about that, but something about all of this Decepticon activity is starting to worry me. What if the Autobots cannot handle all of these strategically placed raids occurring across the globe? To me, it seems as though Megatron is deliberately thinning out the Autobots' forces for a specific reason. He's planning something big that's for sure." A look full of concern fell upon Sapphire's face as she peered outside her office window overlooking Phoenix Arizona. The night sky seemed to empower the already jewel encrusted city below, making Phoenix light up even more.

"Well, if you're that concerned about this issue, go snoop around for a bit. No one will miss ya except for those damned reporters who never leaver yer side." Tom now leaned up against Sapphire's small brown desk, looking back over towards Sapphire, who was still staring outside the one and only window in her office.

She chuckled. "Tom's right and this could be my one and only chance for me to finally get away from all of these stupid problems the United States, in general has. Come on now, giant thirty foot killer robots SHOULD be classified as a domestic threat now, should it?" Sapphire thought to herself.

"Optimus, we have a situation in New York." Prowl lifelessly admitted looking up at Teletraan 1.

"What is it Prowl? Decepticons? What would they want to do in such a heavily populated area?" Optimus Prime inquisitively asked his second-in-command. His hand scratched the bottom of his face plate.

"We are receiving reports from local authorities that Megatron himself has been sighted, and is the mastermind behind the recent Energon raids in New York." Prowl didn't dare to deviate his attention from Teletraan I to inform Optimus of the now increasing dilemma occurring over on the East Coast.

"Very well. Jazz?" Optimus opened up a comlink channel to contact the more laid back second-in-command.

"Jazz here. What is it Optimus?" Jazz cheerfully replied.

"Jazz, I need you to gather all available units on hand and assemble a strike force ASAP."

"On it Prime, only I think the only 'bots available right now are You, Prowl, Hound, Ironhide, Ratchet, Wheeljack, Blaster, and myself." Optimus looked down in frustration.

"Tell Ratchet to stay here in the Ark. Round up everyone else and tell them to meet me on the landing platform in 25 Klicks."

"Yes sir!" With that, Optimus closed his comlink channel and turned towards Prowl, who was feverishly typing on Teletraan 1.

"Prowl, contact Skyfire and tell him to come to the Ark—"

"I'm already on it sir. I'm just having some Interference with the weather." Prowl painfully stated. Prowl did not want to waste anymore time waiting for the Decepticons to make their move.

"Prowl, just make sure you contact Skyfire. When you do contact me." Optimus tried to hide the anger brewing in his voice.

"On it." Prowl simply replied. His optics never faltered from Teletraan's giant screen, which now consisted of the schematics of New York's intertwining road networks.

Sapphire was staring into the full body mirror on the door outside to her room in her apartment. She decided to fly herself back home this night in her Arwing after she left U.S. Intel H.Q. in Phoenix. Her trip took roughly three hours. Now safely back in Grand Rapids, Sapphire decided to return to her three room apartment. Relaxing in her own home was a once in a blue moon opportunity she did not want to miss. The verb; relax, was a luxury in Sapphire's eyes now after she became Chief of U.S. Intel.

Earlier at her office, Sapphire pulled her mid-back length, deep brown loose curled hair into a puffball ponytail. Now it hung down revealing its true nature. A mess of tangles and split ends riddled her face, down past her shoulders.

"God, I'm a mess…" Sapphire moaned when she saw her mangled hair twist and turn all over her head. Her sky blue eyes were sunk in and begging Sapphire for at least a few hours of sleep to recuperate after countless hours staring at telecommunication screens. Sapphire yelped out in pain when she tried to brush out the tangled mess on top of her head.

"Who know that being appointed Chief of Intelligence for the United States would make me look like this?" Sapphire groggily uttered. Three days have passed since she had crashed in a make shift cot in her office. After that, Sapphire has ceased to stop for an ounce of rest. Her determination to finish what she began three days earlier, now affected her ability to keep up to beat with the rest of the world. Interviews with five different countries spread across the entire planet, in one week, now affected her physically, and mentally.

"Two days… then I'm finally free." Sapphire kept on repeating in her conscious. In her standards, wearing a white, long sleeve blouse with a black pinstripe vest, coupled with navy blue slacks with white floral prints on the flares; was dressy. And she hated it with a passion. Sapphire was a tomboy, and dress codes meant torture to her.

Sapphire only had to comply with the codes and rules in her office for just two more days. After her final interview with CNN about Sapphire's perspective about being Earth's "guardian", she was going to resign from Intel. For good.

Sapphire paused detangling her hair. She spun around and chucked her hairbrush into the living room behind her. The reverberation of a lamp shattering echoed in the background. Her white knuckled fists dangled at her sides as if in anticipation of an upcoming battle between a rabid bull and herself.

"Damn it, the last time I've had any sleep was three freakin' days ago!" Sapphire angrily shouted to her bombarded living room. Sapphire hit her fists on the door frame to her room. Letting her head hang in disappointment, her memories brought her to a person—a robot Sapphire hoped she would encounter again. His name was Ratchet.

Prowl seemed to be always on edge for an incoming Decepticon attack, no matter where he was positioned. Prowl was sitting in Skyfire's control room in the loading bay. Two agonizing hours were left in the flight for New York. He hated to wait. With every passing moment that the Autobots were not in New York, gave the Decepticons more allotted time to formulate a more cunning, and deadly plan. Prowl defiantly felt like all control over any situation involving transportation across the country was well out of his hands. And he hated every single nanosecond of it.

Jazz noticed the distressed mech's body language and decided enough was enough. Seeing Prowl acting like a two year old sparkling was amusing, for a while. Now with New York only two hours away, Jazz seemed like this was an opportune time for him to try and calm down the tense police car.

"Hey Prowl." Prowl seemed to jump a bit, as if he was in a trance and turned around to the saboteur. "Relax for a bit why don't ya? Skyfire said we'll be over in New York in about a few hours." Jazz, with a lopsided grin, nonchalantly said. Jazz always seemed to pass on his snappy attitude to those who needed it the most. In this case, Prowl looked as if he needed a case full of it, for the time being.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna enjoy our time in New York City. I hear the humans down in the Big Apple know how to throw some crazy parties." Blaster chirped in, with his hands placed upon his hips.

"Is that all you ever think about Blaster? Nonstop Parties with the human ladies?" Hound playfully teased. Blaster who was roughly the same size as the green tracker, turned toward his direction with an expression clearly stating he did not appreciate Hound's comment.

"Hey, I've got feelings too ya know!" Blaster sneered.

"Save yer Energon fer the Decepticons instead on each other, ya glitch heads!" Ironhide demanded, stepping between the two mechs.

"Fine by me. I'll just be sittin' in the corner rustin' if ya'll need me." Blaster lamented as he trudged off to one of the tables, and transformed into his alt. mode; a red and yellow boom box. Jazz just laughed and walked up to Blaster. The two happy-go-lucky robots proceeded to jam out to some of Earth's rock music Blaster emitted from his stereos.

"Can you two please turn down that ruckus!? I'm trying to work here!" Wheeljack protested, and head fins flashing bright blue with every word. He glanced over to the only two robots, who seemed to be enjoying themselves on the flight inbound for New York. Components of Wheeljack's rifle were scattered all around his table. Wheeljack was fiddling with the internal wiring and such, trying to amp up his weapon. Wheeljack conceded in his efforts to quiet the two 'bots down after the song "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" was turned up.

Hound and Ironhide seemed to enjoy Wheeljack's misery. The Green and Red mechs chuckled and went off to occupy their down time. Prowl witness this drama unfold in the shadows. He could not understand his teammates during events like these. Prowl decided to take up Jazz's advice to "relax". Only Prowl's definition of relaxing was on another world compared to Jazz's.

Prowl walked off in silence to where the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime stood overlooking the flashing colors of the passing ground below through Skyfire's landing bay doors. If Prowl was going to talk to anyone, Prime would be the only mech who would understand his logic.

"Prime…" Prowl started. "We should be arriving in New York within the hour."

Optimus turned ever so slightly to Prowl and calmly replied, "Thank you for the update Prowl."

"Sir?"

"Yes, what is it Prowl?"

"I have a bad feeling about this mission sir." Optimus did not respond. He knew when something irked Prowl; his feelings never betrayed him or his fellow Autobots. "Megatron knows that he has spread out our forces dangerously thin across the planet."

"Yes, I'm aware of that Prowl."

"But what I don't understand is why doesn't Megatron just attack in some rural energy plant, rather than a densely populated city, filled with humans and federal authorities? Megatron's forces would have more maneuverability in the wide open country, but not in a city. This sudden change in Megatron's tactics just does not sound right."

"Unless…" Prowl was now lost in his thoughts, contemplating the confusing turn of events. Suddenly Prowl's optics widened when he came to his final conclusion.

"Prowl, I realize your concern for an immediate attack on the humans, but if Megatron is willing to risk human life to take us down, we MUST stop him before his plans are to be put into action." A prolonged silence fell between the two Autobots.

An hour passed when Skyfire's deep, booming voice interrupted the two mechs meditation. "Optimus we are now nearing New York City."

"Be on guard Skyfire for those Seekers." Before Optimus could turn his attention to Prowl, he was already making his way back to the other five Autobots to inform them of their current situation.

"Optimus! I'm picking up three Seekers en route for us! Brace for combat!"

"Autobots! Prepare for battle!" Optimus roared as he revealed his hidden blaster from a compartment in his back. The other Autobots were already in full battle mode before the Seekers opened fire on Skyfire's hull.

Authors Notes: Hey everyone! I hope you'll still keep on reading my story! The action is coming, don't worry about that! :D I hope I didn't bore you too much in this chapter. I'm going to try to update this story as fast as I can, and patience is very much appreciated!

FYI for those who didn't catch this, I used a Star Wars quote in this chapter. Can YOU find it? ^^