New York, USA

A group of police cars, army vehicles, news vans and surveillance vehicles were at the airport, surrounding the Prime Minister's jet; due to the incident on board it had made an emergency touchdown at the nearest airport. The entire plane was searched for what killed the five men, while the Prime Minister was quickly evacuated to a nearby shelter.

As officers, scientists and soldiers swarmed the plane, the cargo was being tossed out of the plane and into a large pile under the jet's belly. In the midst of the numerous suitcases and haversacks, Rumble and Frenzy transformed, scurrying unseen through the luggage towards a blue Balkan Mk.6 armored-surveillance vehicle, parked a distance away.

Frenzy quickly opened the door, and he and Rumble entered the vehicle, where a familiar mustached officer sat at the wheel. "Did you get what Blackout and Lugnut failed to obtain?" the 'human' asked, its voice a harsh, metallic monotone.

"Just as you asked, boss-bot," Frenzy replied. "I also implanted the virus into their systems, but those squishies interrupted me before I could upload it completely."

"The cruddy insects actually tried to shoot us!" added Rumble, contempt in his voice.

"We kicked their asses, though. And we've finally found a clue to where the big-bot and the Goddian are." As he spoke Frenzy switched on the computer on the dashboard, uploading his recently-obtained data into it. At once images began to flash on the screen, including a newspaper article about Captain Hikaru Suzumiya's admittance to a mental asylum.

"It seems that this Hikaru has seen our language… if that is so, he must have been in contact with the Goddian as well," the 'human' murmured. It seemed to flicker for a moment, revealing it as a hologram.

Frenzy proceeded to type a few words into the Google search engine. A minute later he clicked on a link, and an eBay profile appeared on the screen.

A profile of a username 'SOSgirl217': a 20-year old girl with brown hair and matching eyes, with yellow ribbons on her head.

Frenzy continued to press a few keys, and an image of an Item #21153 appeared: a pair of old glasses that once belonged to the Captain. Looking closer they could see several near-invisible, but very familiar runes carved onto the lenses. "Looks like the map is in the hands of the guy's great-great-grandkid," Rumble observed.

"Ayep, and there's more where that came from," added Frenzy, pressing another key. Immediately a new wave of images appeared on the screen that made Rumble and the hologram sit up in attention: it was the information of the Humanoid Interfaces that Frenzy downloaded from the jet's mainframe.

By the time the images ended the hologram was smirking sinisterly. "Excellent work, Frenzy, Rumble," it congratulated, and then there was a series of beeping sounds as the communications devices in the Balkan's rear came to life.

"Soundwave to Barricade; come in, Barricade."

There was a few seconds of static, and then a voice replied on the other end; a snarling, brusque voice similar to that of a stereotypical 'bad cop'. "Barricade here; there are no signs of those Autobots so far."

"That is unimportant for now. I have found the link to the Goddian that we have been searching for," the hologram – Soundwave – replied. "There is a human living near your area by the name of Haruhi Suzumiya, who possesses the map to Megatron-sama and possibly the Goddian; you are to apprehend that human and obtain the map from her, at all costs. I will send Frenzy to assist you, along with all available information on the human."

"Acknowledged, Soundwave," said Barricade. There was a pause. "What if I encounter one of these 'Humanoid Interfaces'?"

If it was even possible, Soundwave's monotone voice turned even more chilling. "Terminate it."

The other voice chuckled maliciously. "With pleasure. Barricade out."

Right after the conversation ended, the doors behind the vehicle opened, and Frenzy (taking an RC Jet mode) flew out, unseen by the humans as he soared into the dark sky towards the north-east.

Ministry of Defense, Boardroom

About two hours had passed since Frenzy had hacked into the Ministry of Defense's system; Utamaro, several generals and admirals, the directors of the Secret Service and all of the analysts – including Konata, the Hiiragi twins, and Miyuki – were all there, discussing the virus that Frenzy had (mostly) implanted into the system. "I've never seen anything like it before," one of the senior analysts was saying. "It's similar to a spider-bot, but its core and its propagation methods are completely different."

Utamaro frowned. "Can we stop it before it detonates?"

"Well, sir –" the analyst cleared his throat. "That's where it gets weird; every time we try to install an anti-virus, an antidote, you name it, it actually analyzes and counters it, speeding up its own process. It's almost as if –" He paused uneasily, "– it's alive somehow. That, or whoever created it is a master hacker, like the one who spawned the Y2K Bug."

One of the admirals was the next to speak. "Whoever did this finally managed to infiltrate our defense network; the same thing they tried to do in Qatar. Only this time, they succeeded. This is obviously the first phase of an attack against Japan; the very first thing they would do is to shut down all our communications capabilities. According to our intelligence, Russia and North Korea are the only countries with the potential to accomplish something like this. As we speak, we are now reacting accordingly –"

Konata chose that moment to speak up. "Excuse me, sir."

Utamaro reacted. "Ah, Izumi-san," he said. "You have something to tell us?"

"Hai," Konata nodded. "It's about the hack; whoever it is, it broke through our national firewall in ten seconds. Ten. Even our best hackers or computers would take more than twenty years to even scratch it."

The admiral scoffed. "That's impossible. No human's smart enough to do that."

"Well, maybe it isn't human. The virus – signal pattern – it's evolving, changing…mutating. It's alive. You need to move past Fourier transfers and start thinking quantum mechanics, or instantaneous cyber-cognizant adaptive algorithms."

"Nothing can be that complex," the analyst retorted.

"Actually, there is," said Konata. "An organism, like that still-in-theory Biological CPU –"

Utamaro cut him off. "Izumi-san, I think you've been watching too much Star Trek. This is an emergency, not a sci-fi or anime convention. I suggest you keep that in mind before shooting your mouth off." And with that he turned around to leave. "However, if you or anybody else do find any evidence to support your theory, I'll be more than happy to hear it," the Minister added over his shoulder.

"Well, can I use that condition I told you to agree about?"

"Your condition. But it only applies once."

"Once is all I need, Utamaro-sama."

Qatari Desert, Middle East

The sand dunes were quiet. After the massacre and the destruction at SOCCENT, Keizan and his surviving band of soldiers trudged across the scorching desert towards Rahmed's home village. It was taking longer than usual, since Ryo had wounded his leg badly and had to be helped along by Nobunaga. Keizan led the way, followed by Rahmed, with Ryo not far behind.

Keizan turned to his men. "All right everyone, take a short break!" he spoke, and was greeted with groans and sighs. Epps poured a bottle of water on his head. "You okay, Ryo?" he asked.

"I'm still in one piece, aren't I?" Ryo chuckled. "I'll live."

"Thank God. If you died I'd have to find a substitute godfather," joked Keizan.

"You'd still have me!" Ryoko yelled.

Meanwhile Epps and Nobunaga were examining the recorded infra-red images of Blackout. Despite being the weapons specialist of the team, Nobunaga couldn't help but be stunned at what he saw. "In my whole career, I've never seen anything like this before," he spoke fervently.

"Forget the weapons; what the hell was that anyway?" Epps asked.

"Whatever it was, its weapons are simply too advanced to be from any country. Call me crazy, but…I don't think that thing's from this world," Ryo spoke up.

"You may be right," muttered Keizan, taking out his satellite transmitter. "Kuso, looks like SAT-COM's busted; we can't get any aerial surveillance or any form of help whatsoever."

"Great, so we're gonna die out here, in this God-forsaken desert," grumbled Epps. "Fan-freaking-tastic!"

Keizan looked at each of his comrades as they looked around hopelessly: Epps (who had collapsed to the ground), the injured Ryo, Ryoko, Nobunaga, Sergeant First Class Doku, Warrant Officer Naginata and the Chimera twins – Master Sergeants Koji and Koichi. With a determined expression on his face he strode forward and hauled Epps to his feet.

"Come on, guys. We can't give up yet. We have to get to Rahmed's village so we can call for help and send this information to the Ministry of Defense. Once we do so, we can go home," encouraged Keizan. "Now come on, let's move!"

"Yokhai!!" came the rousing shout from the soldiers, who saluted. Quickly they spread out over to the nearest dunes. "Nobunaga, how much gear do we have left?" Daisuke asked.

Nobunaga placed his haversack on the sand, unzipping it. "Let's see… a busted radio, half of our weapons, one road flare… one Swiss army knife, cooking fuel – dunno why we have that – and one stick of gum," he said, looking into the bag. "Oh, and a box of Salems' and a photo of Naginata's girlfriend…" he trailed off as he gazed, open-mouthed, at the photo.

Several soldiers, except for Ryoko, soon surrounded him, gasping and making wolf-whistles at the photo. With a livid expression on his face Naginata marched forward and snatched the photo from Nobunaga's hands, shoving it into his pocket. The soldiers groaned in disappointment, much to Keizan's amusement. Just then Rahmed ran up.

"Captain, my village is near; it's just over the next sand dune," the boy spoke.

"All right, let's go!" shouted Keizan, leading his men on. Soon they were able to see the village, and were advancing slowly towards it.

It wasn't much of a sight: a hundred or so stone buildings and palm trees were all that made it up. Ahmed led the way, half-walking, half-running. Keizan was not far behind, putting all of his energy into one final boost. Ryo and Ryoko followed, the former now being able to walk due to a couple of Nobunaga's painkillers, and the rest of them brought up the rear.

"Yosshi! We're nearly there!" exclaimed Keizan. "I'm sure there's a doctor in that village."

"Actually, Captain, our doctor was executed yesterday for accidentally poisoning our chief's pet cat," said Rahmed; Keizan face-palmed in reply.

The group passed by several telephone poles that were connected by a single high-tension wire. This meant one thing: a phone in the village, hopefully a working one. Just then a lone old, beyond-used pole shuddered violently; within seconds it seemed to pop out of its hole, and it crashed into the sand, missing Nobunaga's head by inches. Startled, they whirled around with their weapons ready. "What the hell was that?!" Epps asked.

"Maybe it just fell down," Koichi suggested. "It is rather old, after all."

"This place is haunted!!" Naginata muttered in fear, backing away from the group. "We must get out of here!"

"Damare, kono baka!" Ryoko snapped angrily. There was silence. "Naginata? Where'd he go??"

The soldiers looked all around them; Naginata was nowhere to be seen. Lying on the sand was the photo of his girlfriend, which Nobunaga quickly picked up and secretly put in his pocket. "Maybe he ran off," he suggested.

"Check over the dunes. He can't have gone far," commanded Keizan.

The soldiers, sans Keizan and Epps, walked off with their rifles at the ready. As Keizan looked about he failed to see something rise out of the sand towards his unprotected back: a long pointed mechanical spike just inches from his head, ready to impale him. Epps turned and spotted it. "LOOK OUT!!" he roared, opening fire.

Hearing the warning shout, Keizan ducked as the bullets whizzed over his head and struck the metal spike, causing it to vanish back beneath the sand. "Something's down there!!" warned Keizan. "Everyone be careful!"

For a moment there was silence, punctuated by the swishing of the wind over the desert. And then the world seemed to end for a second as a horribly familiar shriek erupted from the ground, which exploded right below them. A giant beast was leaping out of the sand; quickly Keizan seized Rahmed, tearing across the sand towards the village. "GO!! MOVE, MOVE!!" he bellowed.

Epps and the others didn't need to be told twice; kicking up their legs they took off after Keizan at top speed, just as the beast itself burst forth from the sand: Scorponok. A giant 11-foot mechanical imperial scorpion, he was covered in pitch-black armor with eight red eyes on his head, and had a pair of massive spinning pincers at the end of his two front limbs, along with a razor-sharp spike at the end of his tail. The tail in question shot forward, caught Doku by the leg and tossed him into the air, catching him back in his maw. The gory sounds of bone crunching soon mixed in with Doku's pitiful screams as he was devoured by the scorpion-robot.

The troops ran as fast as they could, never faltering as Scorponok came after them like a shark pursuing its prey. He made a pounce for Koichi, only to miss him by a hair's breadth.

In the village dogs barked, horses leapt about in a panic, and Arab men shouted loudly as Keizan's men approached the village like an army of ants, pursued by a giant black scorpion. Upon seeing the monster, pandemonium broke out; everyone was screaming and fleeing for shelter. Soldiers who were stationed in the village rushed out to investigate the commotion, readying their weapons for battle when they saw Scorponok.

"Everyone take cover! Form a perimeter!!" barked Keizan, diving behind a mud wall, the others not far behind. Koji was about to jump in after them when Scorponok's tail flashed out and pierced his back, erupting out of his chest in a crimson shower. Tossing the corpse aside the scorpion-robot leapt towards them again.

"Sir, do you have a telephone?" Eizan asked an Arab named Kalim urgently.

Kalim nodded. "Follow me!" he shouted, leading them to his stone hut. The three dashed inside, Kalim handing Keizan a cell phone belonging to one of the soldiers. Muttering a hurried thank-you, Keizan ran outside, dialing the operator.

"Hello?" he spoke. "This is a Ministry of Defense emergency call! I need you to – do you understand me? This is – ARGH!!" he shouted as a stray missile crashed into the building he was in, showering him with powdered concrete. He barely made it out with scratches. "WHAT?! What do you mean, I need a God-damned credit card?!" he bellowed.

"Sir, I understand that you're having some kind of difficulty, but being rude is not going to speed things up at all," the Indian operator spoke nonchalantly, flicking a piece of dirt out of his ear. "I'm going to have to ask you to speak into the mouthpiece more clearly."

"I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR HERE, YOU MORON!!" screamed Keizan, teetering on the verge of hysteria. "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!" Quickly he ran into the street towards his remaining troops. To his left, Koichi was firing his rifle at Scorponok, his ammo doing absolutely nothing of value against the robot's tough armor. "Koichi, do you have a credit card?!" Keizan shouted.

"What do you need a card for at a time like this?!" Koichi snapped exasperatedly as a missile soared over his head and destroyed an army truck.

"I need it to call for backup. If you have one, hand it over now!"

"Sorry, can't help you; my wife confiscated all of them. Epps has one, ask him," replied Koichi, loading a missile launcher and firing it at Scorponok.

Keizan raced away from Koichi and towards Epps, who was practically firing at the scorpion-robot with every gun he could get his hands on. "Bring it, you oversized piece of junk!!" Epps was bellowing, aiming his missile launcher and firing. The missile flew straight and true, hitting its target, but did no damage, instead only serving to anger Scorponok further.

"Epps, I need your credit card!! Where's your wallet?" Keizan shouted.

"Pocket!" Epps shouted back.

"Which pocket?!" Keizan yelled in his ear.

"Back!!"

Bending down Keizan feverishly rifled through the numerous pouches and pockets around the soldier's waist. "You've got ten back pockets!!" he thundered.

"Left cheek! Left cheek!! LEFT CHEEK!!" Epps roared, continuing to fire.

After a few minutes Keizan finally found the wallet, whipped out the card and scurried back to safety. "Keep shooting!" he shouted to Epps, and then placed the phone to his ear, rattling off the numbers on the card into the mouthpiece. "And you'd better take MasterCard!!" he added.

"Of course we do, sir," the operator replied in a pacifying tone. "And also, have you heard about our new Premium Plus full service call package –"

"NO, I DON'T WANT A CRUDDY PREMIUM PACKAGE!!" screeched Keizan.

"Bad choice, human! SCORPONOK! TERRORIZE!!" Keizan heard, as Scorponok began TRANSFORMING into a scorpion/human type robot. "Waspinator! Terrorsaur! Assist me!"

Just then, a giant, mechanical Wasp and a similar-sized cybernetic Pteranodon appeared out of nowhere, transforming into half-beast robots.

Ministry of Defense

At the Ministry, Utamaro was talking quietly to a military officer and a group of members from the Secret Service. Just then a phone operator across the room answered a call, and the agents departed, a group of armed men following.

"Sir, we have an MOD emergency line."

"Japan Air Self-Defense Force officer under hostile fire, request relay to SOCCOM immediately!" a voice bellowed down the line, causing the operator to fall out of his seat in shock. "This is Captain Keizan Ryonosuke! My remaining troops and I are the survivors of the attack on SOCCENT; we are now in a small village in the Qatari desert! Requesting backup!!"

"What's going on here?" the Minister demanded, attracted by the shout.

"Minister-sama, a Captain Ryonosuke has called in from a village in Qatar. He says that he and his men are the survivors of the base attack, and are under fire from an unknown enemy," the operator spoke, staggering to his feet. "He requests backup and assistance immediately."

"Put it up on screen now!" ordered Utamaro. "And send out all available units to assist them!"

A satellite from Russia zoomed in on the Qatari desert, the images it picked up shown on the screens in the Ministry. Utamaro looked on in shock and horror at the sight of Scorponok, Waspinator, and Terrorsaur blasting the village to pieces. "What the heck?" he whispered.

"It looks like giant mechanical animals, Minister-sama," the operator answered. The look directed at him by Utamaro caused him to gulp loudly.

Back in Qatar, Scorponok suddenly reared back and stomped forward. As the Predacons moved, they wer suddenly targeted by a series of red lights. Looking up Waspinator saw a group of Mitsubishi F-2 fighter jets soaring overhead.

This did not look good for them.

"Targets sighted, initializing counterattack," spoke one of the pilots.

Below Keizan saw the missiles launch from the jets and immediately threw himself to the ground. "The heat's comin'… everyone down! NOW!" he shouted; whether the villagers could understand a word he was saying or not, they nonetheless knew what was coming and flattened themselves against the ground, along with the other soldiers.

The missiles, streaking through the air like lightning bolts, struck Scorponok, Waspinator, and Terrorsaur, blowing parts of their respective bodies to pieces. They then immediately retreated.

"Targets have escaped; but severely wounded," announced the pilot.

Utamaro sighed in relief. "Bring them home," he commanded.

Turning around, Keizan turned to face his remaining troops, a triumphant smile on his face.

Author's notes:

If any of you wonder why Ryo and Ryoko are working with the military, Ryoko had been reassigned with the military observation task, as well as a back-up of her own: Ryo.

Next chapter will include drama, love, and Action. But just as importantly, It will include the premier of a group of Decepticon warriors, led by non-other then BARRICADE!

Your ribbon-wearing Goddess DEMANDS it!