[Location: Autobot Base]

Only so much could be unpacked and set up in her room. What boxes remained had been stacked in and around the cast iron bath tub. As it was now, the back left hand corner, the one opposite of her Autobot body sized desk, had turned into a human sized work area. Between the desk from her bedroom and her computer workstation and repair desk from her 'in house' side business it was a regular office. Carefully setting the file cabinet down next to her writing desk that was for once somewhat organized, Elita focused down on it as she let her larger body pick her up in its left hand and thought about what she was going to do with it.

Her 'Virus Vault' came about from at first from gathering the files from fixing people's computers. It wasn't a skill that she knew she had, but one she picked up quickly as she learned there was a need for someone in her small town to be able to do so. Her love for the digital systems began the first Christmas after her father had bravely given his life for those he served with. The six men and their families had come together to give the widow and her daughter a holiday celebration. Jessica and Ellan were surprised to find a family standing outside their door, the father in his BDUs and holding his newborn in his arms with a blanket covering it to keep the falling snow from the little one. The family, which included three other children at their mother's side, caroled for the pair before the man introduced himself as one of the men that Stephen Greer saved that day and extended the invitation for Ellan and her mother to join them for Christmas. Reluctantly they agreed, but only after the other children added their pleas.

Once they reached the other's home they were greeted by the five other men and their family, having flown in to make the holiday special to the family that was left behind by the man who sacrificed his life so they could live. Knowing her husband's nature and seeing how these men were cherishing their families, Jessica wept with joy for the first time since. When it came to giving gifts, the men had all chipped in to buy one for Ellan. They had recalled how fondly Stephen would talk about his daughter and how she had a natural talent with working with machines. They also recalled how he was saving up to buy his daughter a computer for Christmas, the funds with which Jessica had to use for the bills after his death.

They all had chipped in and got Ellan the most up-to-date system at the time and on the "From:" tag, they had put her father's name. It was something the young lady still cherished to this day. Even though she didn't use the system anymore, it was safely packed in a box and had been stored away. A box that now rested under her computer desk.

With a sigh, Elita curled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them as she rested her chin on her knees. The vault was not something to be taken lightly. It contained just about every virus she had come across while repairing other people's computers. Originally she saved them to study their coding and had built a smaller computer separate from her network to keep them from inadvertently spreading again. In studying their coding she was able to come with a few anti-virus programs herself and in turn able to write a few virus codes as well, though she only saved those for 'special occasions'. Further studying the coding she was able to track down most of the minds behind the viruses, particularly the really nasty ones, by how they did their coding and anonymously turn them into the authorities. Those special occasions were used to preserve the hacker's systems to keep them from hiding when the cops or feds came beating on their doors.

It was while she was working with Silas and his crew that she realized that her knowledge was being used for non-humanitarian reasons and it made her decide that she needed to hide the dangerous piece of hardware. Modifying an old file cabinet she was able to safely store away the destructive files from prying eyes and hands. Imputing the wrong code into the keypad would activate the system and begin a system wide wipe of the system that would only take a few seconds to complete. Opening the drawers by force would accomplish the same thing, save that when the drawers were opened it only showed a regular file system with a few folders inside with dummy paperwork.

The current problem now was that she had it in the base with her and she was currently thinking on how to break the news to her friends. Optimus needed to be told about it and in turn Ratchet and the others. Then there was the issue of access to it. While they Autobots trusted her it would only be beneficial to bring Rafael into the knowledge of the system. Raf was the only other human she could trust with Vault access.

Elita had come across young Esquivel in the hacker community in the year prior to her kidnapping, though she only realized it while she was looking over his shoulder at his computer coding as he was creating the virus to hack the Decepticon's system to gather the Iacon database. The only 'malicious' coding the young man had released. She found his 'signature' scattered across all sorts of conspiracy sites in replacement pictures and found herself endeared to him then, a coder after her own keys in a way, and his replacements made her laugh. He wasn't doing harm so she left him alone and didn't bother digging any deeper into whom he actually was on the other side of the screen. Realizing the truth now Elita was very glad she never truly found out who he was.

A beeping of her larger computer systems brought her out of her thoughts. Hopping from her larger hand, E walked over to the six screened behemoth and pulled up her search. Since Rafael was with his family searching for a new house after the Decepticon's attempt at terminating him she was running the searches online while he was away. Apparently it was a good thing she was. Rolling her chair closer to her setup, Elita brought up the results of her search. A video someone had posted on the VidView site made her sigh.

It was originally a flash mob in Japan doing the latest 'dance craze' en mass until a large mecha decided to join in. In the comments was a flame war on if the mecha that joined in the dancing was real or CGI. Grabbing a group of chained flash drives from her bottom right hand drawer she flipped through them until she came across the one she wanted and plugged it in. A few seconds later she turned a viral video into a true viral video. She hated to do it, but having the code track down all the computers that viewed it, and the thousands that saved the video to their systems, to wipe the file clean was necessary.

"Really, Smokescreen?" she mumbled as she put the chain of flash drives away, "Gangnam style?" The newest Autobot had volunteered to take Miko to Japan to visit her parents for a little bit after Bulkhead had talked her into it. The Wrecker couldn't really go due to his size and Smokescreen had quickly made the offer to go earlier in the day before going on patrol with Bumblebee that afternoon.

As she let the virus do its job she set herself to rest on the right shoulder off her larger form to make her way to the control center of the base. It was better to talk about the Virus Vault now while the base was quiet than with a bunch of audio sensors, just in case Optimus decided that the thing needed to be destroyed. As she made her way down the hallway, Elita was actually playing the most recent song to come to mind. She couldn't stand it, but dang it; it was addictive!

Timeframe: Legacy

When she found the room occupied by all of the Autobots that lived there and Jack, all staring at her oddly as she came in, did she realize then that she was playing it out loud and shut it off. "Sorry," she said with a bashful cringe though both forms.

"Good song!" Smokescreen said enthusiastically, giving her a thumbs up.

"It's your fault it's stuck in my head," she mumbled as she walked closer, "I just fried a few hundred thousand computers because you joined a flash mob." The look Ratchet and Arcee gave the newest Autobot told Elita that something else happened along the same lines and that was the current discussion she had walked into.

"Is this what you learned while serving Alpha Trion?" Ratchet began to chide Smokescreen, looking as if he wanted to slap the pain job off of the Elite Guard.

Elita winced a bit at seeing the medic so mad, but set her human body down on the platform Jack was on to look at his computer screen. With a sigh and a shake of her head as she looked at the picture of Bumblebee and Smokescreen plastered right on it she began to key in what she needed in order to take care of the picture as the discussion about the newest Autobot's behavior and how to go about fixing it.

"Perhaps the best way for you to learn about the human world," Prime stated thoughtfully, "is from a human."

"Smokescreen gets his own partner?" Arcee asked incredulously.

"Pa-lease," Ratchet interjected, "isn't having three humans here enough?"

As everyone looked at the medic, most of those present were surprised to hear the words coming from his vocal unit, Smokescreen motioned with his hand at Elita who was back to her human form sitting on her Autobot one, "Didn't you forget one?"

With a disgusted sigh, the medic turned away and marched back to his station. E gently put her hand on his shoulder and offered a kind smile his way, but Ratchet's words and tone bothered her as Smokescreen's question bounced about in her head. Did he really forget that she was human, or at least use to be?

As Jack was volunteered to teach their newest about the world he lived on now, Ratchet looked over at the fem next to him and returned the smile she gave him in both forms. "It's going to be alright," she whispered to him.

Gently placing his hand over hers on his shoulder, the medic nodded, "I know." Together they watched as Smokescreen with Jack peeled out of the base and Arcee plead her case to Optimus about her partner's safety and their leader's reassurances that the young man would be fine.

"So..." Elita said as she stepped out from around Ratchet, "while we're airing our concerns, I have one to bring up." She proceeded to share with them about the dangerous piece of hardware and the coding it contained.

Author's Note: I don't own the show or the song.

As far as I know VidView doesn't exist. Also, the idea for Smokescreen dancing came to me way before I saw the NGSmoov video. I did my best not to get caught up in the Gangnam Style addiction but *shakes playfully -angry fist at TexM.E.C.H.s *.