It was Miko who broke the silence. "Well, what are we waiting for then? Let's go get this thing!"

Rodgers let out a quiet, almost embarrassed cough. "That's just the thing. We don't know where it is. We don't even know how MECH got their hands on it."

"That's why we need your special energon deposit locater," said Sanchez, his previous irritation now gone. "And once it's located, we need you bots to shut it down."

"Wait a minute." Everyone turned to June, who had been quiet the entire briefing. "How come the Autobots need to shut it down? From your description it's a human sized object. Why can't you just bridge in a group of bomb specialists?"

Rodgers started to speak, but Sanchez beat him to the punch. "If I may, Ms. Darby? The bomb is unlike anything the world has ever seen. Not even the top bomb squad in the world could shut it down, simply because once activated it cannot be shut down. It must be detonated." Sanchez thought he looked serious but brave in the eyes of the beautiful Ms. Darby. June thought Sanchez looked like a tuba player that really had to go to the bathroom. A jealous William Fowler venomously thought Sanchez looked like a complete idiot and wanted nothing better than to wipe the smile tugging at the edges of the general's lips right off. And an equally jealous Ratchet glared and both the agent and the general with equal dislike, and briefly entertained the notion of tossing his wrench in the air and "accidentally" dropping it on both of their heads before he mentally berated himself and returned his full attention to the briefing.

June seemed to realize the sudden attention brought upon her by Sanchez, and coolly stated, "I see." With that she returned her attention to her son and released two men and a bot from her impossible-to-ignore hold.

Optimus spoke. "Could an energon amount that minuscule be detected?" he asked Ratchet.

Ratchet grunted. "Not likely. The scanner has enough problems detecting small energon caches, let alone a couple of energon atoms."

"You said not likely," pointed out Rodgers. "That's not an absolute no."

"Well…" Ratchet thought for a moment. "Perhaps. Maybe. If I were to fine-tune the scanner to maximum…" He walked over to the computer and opened a new window before launching a satellite scan. "If I had better equipment, I could possibly search for the device through energon tracing. However, though I can't do that, I can search for small warped magnetic field readings in the closest populated city."

After a moment, the computer beeped. "We have five. Two seem to be test faculties in a smaller city. That leaves three others in the city known as Las Vegas."

There was silence. And then- "Vegas? Really?" Miko said, her eyebrows raised.

"Ah, I remember Vegas," said Rodgers fondly. "Every man's dream world."

"That makes sense, actually." Raf remarked. "Thousands visit Vegas every year. And this is the summer time, so even more are there than usual. MECH sets off a bomb there-"

"And loads of people will be killed," Jack finished grimly.

"Then our objective is clear." Optimus turned to his troops. "Autobots, we must be prepared to do all we can to prevent this catastrophe." He turned to Sanchez. "How much time do we have, General?"

Sanchez checked a stopwatch. "Six hours, forty-seven minutes and seventeen seconds and counting."

"Bulkhead, take Miko," Optimus ordered. "She can help guide you through the populated sector. Take the general also. Should the worse happen, the humans will need heavy-duty protection."

"Sweet!" crowed Miko. Sanchez simply grunted.

"Bumblebee, you shall take Mr. Rodgers and scout out the second closest signal from or bridge point."

Bumblebee whirred and Optimus answered. "Though you are quite fast, Bumblebee, I fear your coloring, as well as the make of your alternative mode will attract unwanted attention."

Optimus turned to Arcee. "Arcee, you are will check the last signal."

"I'm coming too." Jack's voice left no room for argument and it was an unspoken agreement among everyone else not to give him one.

Optimus simply nodded. "Ratchet, fire up the Ground bridge. Autobots, it's time to roll out."

Rodgers grinned, despite the dire circumstances. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are headed to Vegas, the land of night-time fun."

Okay! I know I promised you guys a holiday chapter. Three things:

My holidays haven't ended until I go back to school.

I seem to write worse when I'm out of school. This chapter is the third rewrite.

I would rather give you guys pretty good material late than give you bad material on time, or worse, at all.

Happy New Year to all! Here's hoping the Mayans weren't right!