Transformers Prime Season 3 Episode 2: Prime

by LuisJM

With news that Optimus is alive and held captive by the Decepticons, the team needs to do anything they can to reach the fortress and free their leader. But dark forces are in play as Megatron welcome a key player into the fold. Will Team Prime succeed? Jack x Arcee Pairing. (Editing by FictionFan1024) COMPLETE!

10. Reunited

So I was at Funplex in East Hanover New Jersey doing my usual thing. Playing video games, doing my DDR, record a video on my Youtube channel, the usual. When all of a sudden, I've encountered a new game that caught me by surprise. It's called, Transformers: Human Alliance and it's based off the Transformers movieverse. I got to admit, this was a really impressive game. It has the type of rail shooting, quick thinking, gameplay element that is similar to that of Deadstorm Pirates and Escape 4D and shows the character of the Transformers such as Optimus, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Megatron, Starscream, Brawl, Soundwave, and a new Con in Slipstream. I haven't gotten to the end since I ran out of tokens, but I got to say that the game looks really promising. I'm certain they released it to promote the new movie that's coming out in the summer. So if that's the case, then sign me up, I'm gamed. If there's an arcade near your area and if there's a Transformers arcade game. I suggest playing it immediately. You don't know what you're missing. The review and hit counter is looking good. 14 responses and almost 750 views. But strangely enough my hit counter on the last chapter is a little less then the others. Hmm… I got a bad feeling that I'm loosing reader's interest in the story. Doesn't matter I'll continue to do this story whether people read it or not. Besides, I do believe people will read this next one to regain their interest. On this next chapter of Prime, the recruits race to the comm. facility in Darkmount to get the team in from the inside. Will they be able to get there and rejoin their fiends? And what of Arcee? Will she or Jack take the first step to their relationship? This is going to be a juicy one.

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Prime

---

Chapter Ten: Reunited

At the thirtieth floor of Darkmount, a huge group of Airadicons, both purple and silver, were awaiting the arrival of the elevator in Lift Access 35, where these so-called intruders were located. As they waited, one of the drones looked to the other and asked what was going on.

Airadicon 7: "So… Tell me again what we're doing here?"

The second Airadicon turned to him and explained.

Airadicon 8: "Security had been breached in Darkmount. Starscream believed that the Neutrals may be in the fortress. He needs to establish whether they are here or not."

Airadicon 7: "Really? Well it still feels like a waste of time if you ask me."

Airadicon 8: "Don't take these Neutrals lightly. They may be young, but they're tough as lug nuts. Certainly proved themselves in the town and sewers. They are really making our leader crazy with rage. We need to make sure that these Neutrals don't do anything that will rock him."

As they were talking, the leading drone looked at the two and told them to shut it.

Airadicon Captain: "Hey, shut up you two. We've got a mission to do. We can't let anything get out of that elevator."

Just as he said that, the sound of the lift was getting near them and was about to stop. The group saw this and decided to arm up their weapons.

Airadicon Captain: "Here they come! Everyone get ready! Open fire once the lift arrives."

Everyone stood their ground as the elevator came to a crawl. The moment it stopped, the captain gave the order.

Airadicon Captain: "Now! Open fire!"

The group fired their blasters at the elevator doors as it was being filled with holes. They continued to fire until their weapons overheated. With the doors nothing but Swiss cheese, there was a ding followed by the doors opening. At first, they thought they would see the bodies of the intruders but when the doors opened, they saw nothing. Just an empty elevator and broken glass that the blasters hit. The captain looked on and was a little bewildered.

Airadicon Captain: "What?! Where are the bodies? What's going on around here?!"

The other Airadicon noticed it too and went into the elevator to investigate while giving his two cents.

Airadicon 7: "Maybe they got off on another floor."

Airadicon Captain: "Impossible! If any of them made it to another floor, the other squads would've called by now, saying that they got them. This doesn't make any sense! How did they disappear this quickly?"

The Airadicon looked around and wondered that too. But then, he heard something behind him and turned around to see what it was. What he saw was a long cable connected to the lift terminal that went up to the ceiling compartment. Curious, he investigated the cable and wondered what it was doing. He then noticed little wires that connected the terminal to the control screen, which was blinking red. On the screen was a warning in Cybertronian that the lift motor was increasing the speed of the elevator while disengaging all safety protocols. Looking up and down, he realized what was happening and was about to say something.

Airadicon 7: "Oh FRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

During the cuss, the elevator's safety was removed and the lift plummeted down to the ground floor with the drone in it. The cable was safely removed from the terminal moments before the elevator made the rapid drop and slivered back into the maintenance vent that a regular sized bot could crawl into. The rest of the squad hurried to the open elevator shaft as the captain looked at the long hole and heard the crash as the lift hit the ground. The captain was completely confused as to how this happened.

Airadicon Captain: "What in the All Spark…"

Just as he was wondering what happened, a metal grate was kicked down from the ceiling. As the metal clanged to the floor, it got the attention from everyone. They turned in that direction and saw a femme jump down to the floor, looking at them with a devilish grin. That femme was Miko, whose Cybertronian code name was Kaosu. She armed her sonic pulse blaster and fired a pulse wave at the group, pushing them into the open shaft as they plummeted to the ground with no room to transform or fly. The Wrecking cadet headed to the open door and looked down and smiled at her accomplishment.

Miko/Kaosu: "Have a nice trip you cog heads! See you next fall!"

She then walked away as the bullet-ridden elevator door closed behind her. At the same time, two mechs came down with three human teenagers on their shoulders. They were Jack, whose code name is Rodimus, and Raf, whose code name is Firewall, and the humans Vince, who was on Jack's shoulder, and Sam and Sari, who was on Raf's shoulders. On Sari's shoulder was Sparkplug, the Scraplet the girl kept as a pet, who was shaking from the fall. Once the group was together, the two recruits offered a servo to the teens; they jumped on them and gently placed them on the floor so they could get a quick stretch. Miko then looked to the former teen and was pleased with what happened.

Miko/Kaosu: "That was fantastic! Way to go Rodimus! I never thought that could really work."

Jack just shrugged his shoulders and told her that it was last minute.

Jack/Rodimus: "Well, there was no option left on the table. Plus the compartment was there, that would mean there could be a vent above it. Just had to wing it."

Vince looked to the closed elevator door and smirked as well.

Vince: "Well I got to say, that was really fun. Those Cons didn't even see it coming."

Jack looked down to the bully and could tell that he was enjoying himself, but they got a mission to do so he got a little serious.

Jack/Rodimus: "One way or the other, we managed to reach the top floor. Now all we have to do is reach the comm. facility and contact Team Prime to begin the rescue. So where is this place, Firewall?"

The hacker looked at the map on the mini terminal on his arm and checked to see where it was. Checking the map, he found both their current location and the station, and didn't like it at all.

Raf/Firewall: "Well, this looks bad. According to the map of Darkmount, the comm. facility is located in the middle of the floor. We didn't think ahead about which elevator to take, such as choosing the closest one. God, we were so stupid."

Sam looked up to him and asked straight away.

Sam Witwicky: "So, what you're saying is that after what we've been through, we now have to walk into the middle of a floor loaded with Cons. What an unexpected twist!"

Firewall continued to look at the map to see if there were other ways to get there.

Raf/Firewall: "Maybe not. This floor is a maze of hallways that can take us anywhere. One of which is a straight passage to the other end. Of course it might have enemies down that path and there's no telling what they are capable of. It's a long shot, but it might work."

Rodimus heard all of it and nodded in agreement, but realizing how much time they've wasted, they had to be sure that they get there in time.

Jack/Rodimus: "Whatever the case, we've taken too much time as it is. The team needs us now more than ever and we can't let them wait very long. We have to race our way down the comm. facility and get them in here as soon as possible. Let's transform guys!"

With that said, the three transformed and revved their engines to begin. They then opened their doors and offered the teens a ride. Without hesitation, Vince went into Jack's Hummer H2, Sam got in Raf's Scion XB, and Sari jumped into Miko's McLaren MP5. With the doors closed, the three revved on and sped down the floor to reach their target. But what they didn't know was that trouble was brewing, as the enemy would be aware of their presence soon enough.

---

Back at the security station, Starscream and Soundwave looked at the monitor for a few good minutes to see the 3D map showing the part of the tower and the lift on it. In each floor, Decepticon bleeps were at each doorway of the elevator in case the intruders got out at one of them. The two waited for something to happen. That's when the elevator shaft changed to red as it meant that the elevator was out of service, followed by the bleeps of Cons that fell in there and disappeared on the map. The second in command saw this and was shocked by what happened.

Starscream: "What? Lift Access 35 is offline and the troops on the thirtieth floor are down. How is that possible? Unless…"

After thinking about it, he realized what it meant and turned to the Intelligence officer for orders.

Starscream: "Get the speakers ready on the thirtieth floor. The troops on that floor need to be warned that the intruders are there."

Soundwave turned to Starscream and remained silent, gesturing that he needs to speak to Megatron immediately. The commander groaned in annoyance and told him not yet.

Starscream: "Until we can confirm that it's these Neutrals that have passed our defenses, I won't tell this news to our leader. We need to be certain that they are here."

The Intel officer remained silent as he decided follow the commander's orders and began contacting the top floor.

---

At the same time, the three recruits sped through the halls as they were reaching their main objective. In the cars, Vince, Sam, and Sari were sitting and watching the road-like hallway while Sparkplug was looking out the window and jumping for joy, being that it was its first ride in a car. Firewall looked at his GPS with the map of Darkmount and studied it for the quickest way to get to the comm. station. He found one route and told the others about it.

Raf/Firewall: "There, turn right!"

So the group made a quick drift and turned to the right down a long narrow hallway. Jack then looked to the hacker through his review mirror and asked him about his decision.

Jack/Rodimus: "You're sure you know where we're going, Firewall?"

Raf/Firewall: "Absolutely. This hallway gives us a clear path to our location. It will be the simplest option we have."

Miko just laughed it up and found it to be too easy.

Miko/Kaosu: "Hey, as long as we don't get caught, we'll be in the clear."

But then, the group heard another announcement from the speakers. At first, they thought it was another speech recorded by Megatron. But then they heard a different voice, a live voice. It was Starscream's voice.

Starscream: "Attention all units! We have a disturbance on the thirtieth floor. We have reason to believe the Neutrals have breached the fortress. Scout the area and be on alert. Be sure to ID the intruders before you engage."

Upon hearing that, Sari sighed to tell her friend to stop talking.

Sari: "You know Kaosu, you gotta stop opening your big mouth."

But Jack argued back to tell her it was too late for that.

Jack/Rodimus: "Doesn't matter now. The Cons already know that we're here. Let's put pedal to the metal and head to the station before they spot us."

So the group pressed hard on the gas and burned rubber as they raced to their objective. But as they were racing, the group saw a few Vehicons close by, walking out of the hallway. The two spotted the recruits and armed up their blasters. In his vehicle mode, Firewall armed his tazer blasters and sent a shocking pulse right at them, shutting them down temporarily. Unfortunately, they were now blocking their path and they had to come up with a different route. So with quick thinking he told them to go down the path the enemy just came from.

Raf/Firewall: "Make a left!"

Quickly the group drifted to the left and entered another hallway. But then, they encountered another group of Vehicons waiting for them, blocking their path with their blasters firing. The Wrecking cadet opened up her sonic blasters in her vehicle form and fired a blast of waves at them, pushing them and slamming them to the wall. With them out of the way, the group reached the end and turned to the right to get back on the correct path. One Vehicon though remained conscious and contacted the second in command through the comm. channel.

Vehicon 18: "Commander Starscream. We had contact, but they managed to give us the slip before they left. They were in their alt modes similar to what the squads encountered. They must be the Neutrals. They are already making a break for it."

---

At the same time, the Autobot recruits sped down the other hall to get close to their goal. Suddenly, a wall came down in front of them and blocked their path. All three applied the brakes and then transformed mid stop, getting the humans out by force. Once they made a stop, the group looked at the wall and could tell that it was meant to stop them. The group thought about turning back. But just as they turned, another wall came down behind them and trapped them completely. The group looked on as Vince groaned to himself, still recovering from the unexpected transformation inside Jack.

Vince: "Great… Now we're trapped!"

Rodimus looked at the two doors and groaned in completely defeat.

Jack/Rodimus: "Yeah, it does seem that way. Better find a way out of here before reinforcements show up."

Looking around for a way out, he spotted a security camera watching their every move. Quickly, he shifted his servo into a blaster and fired it at the camera, destroying completely. But it was too little, too late as the camera caught them at a moment's notice.

---

Back at the security station, Soundwave managed to get the recording of the camera before the recruit blasted it. Rewinding the recording, both he and Starscream saw the recruits in plain view with the exception of their human companions, being that they were on the steel floor. The second in command looked at them and smirked devilishly.

Starscream: "So, the Neutrals managed to breach Darkmount. Got to say, they are certainly resilient."

The Intel officer turned to the second in command and reminded him something he said earlier.

Soundwave: "I should speak to our master about what happened recently. But we're going to need proof to know if they managed to enter Darkmount."

The commander waved it off and let him know that he already knows.

Starscream: "Yes, yes… I know I should speak to Megatron about this news. But I'll wait until the time is right."

But Soundwave didn't like it as he told him about what Megatron said before.

Soundwave: "If there was anything that was out of the ordinary, then it would've been addressed to me."

Scream sighed to himself and told him his plan.

Starscream: "I'm fully aware of what our master said. But why waste such time doing that when we can just show him their bodies. Prepare to crush them!"

The Intelligence officer nodded and began inputting the code to finish them off.

---

Back outside, the team was trying to figure out a way of getting out of this predicament. But as they were planning their escape, they heard gears moving all around them. That's when they noticed the walls that blocked them off moving closer. Sari was the first to notice this and warned the others about it.

Sari: "Uh, guys? Is it me or are the walls reaching us?"

The others soon followed as Rodimus realized what was happening.

Jack/Rodimus: "Oh no… They are going to flatten us! We've got to do something!"

So the three did the one thing anyone would do in an event of getting crushed, place their servos and shoulders to the wall and push wherever they could. Sadly, it was completely fruitless, as the walls got closer to each other. Jack realized it and didn't know what to do.

Jack/Rodimus: "Slaggit! This isn't working! We need to find a way of stopping these walls from crushing us!"

Miko looked to him and argued back.

Miko/Kaosu: "Well I don't see why we have to push the walls away from us. That doesn't work at all!"

The humans all got in the middle and were scared about being flattened to pulp. Sari held on to Sparkplug tightly thinking that this was over. But then, the Scraplet perked up and squirmed around trying to get out. After a few attempts, it managed to break free and scurried to one of the sidewalls. Sari saw it leaving to try to coax it to get back.

Sari: "Sparkplug! What are you doing? Come back!"

The Sparkplug scurried to the wall and opened its jaw to eat its way through. The moment it was gone, the humans looked bewildered and didn't expect it to leave them. Sam looked to her and glared at her.

Sam Witwicky: "Wow… Some pet it turned out to be."

---

Meanwhile, Starscream looked at the map of the crusher as it was nearing the end, ready to turn them into tin cans. He smiled in delight as he rubbed his pointed servos.

Starscream: "Excellent… Just a little more and those three will be nothing but recycled material."

---

At the same time, the recruits tried to push the closed walls away. The walls were getting close to them and were about to crush them. Raf could feel the back wall touching his back pede and was extremely worried.

Raf/Firewall: "This is bad. To think we made it this far, only to be crushed. How embarrassing."

Jack looked back to him and told him that it was all right.

Jack/Rodimus: "Don't worry Firewall. We've been through worse."

Raf looked back and responded to what he said.

Far/Firewall: "Rodimus, considering what we've been through lately, this is far worse than the rest."

The group held on as the hall was getting narrower and narrower as they were about to get crushed. Everyone closed their eyes/optics and thought that they were all going to die. But just as they thought that it was all over, the crushers immediately stopped, as they were about to crush the recruits. Everyone opened their optics and eyes, wondering what happened.

Miko/Kaosu: "Uh… What just happened?"

---

Back at the security station, Starscream saw what happened and was shocked about it. On the map, the crushers were red, meaning that it was inoperable and a Cybertronian message that stated that it was offline.

Starscream: "What? What is happening? Why aren't the crushers pulverizing them by now?!"

---

Back in the hall, the group looked on and wondered why the walls weren't crushing them. But that's when they heard scattering from within the hole the Scraplet created. Sparkplug came out of that hole and was holding a piece of a gear meant for the crusher before opening its jaws and chomping it down into its mouth. It then scattered towards Sari and rubbed her leg, claiming that it did a good job. The young teen picked it up and rubbed its head, happy that her pet saved everyone's lives. Looking to Sam, she stuck her tongue out and told him that he was wrong.

Sari: "You were saying Sam?"

The young Witwicky rolled his eyes around and decided to ignore her for a moment. Jack though sighed in relief, knowing that the Scraplet was the unexpected lifesaver. But he decided to stick with the task at hand as he placed his servo on the metal wall.

Jack/Rodimus: "Even if were out of danger, we still have the issue of getting out. A shame the Scraplet didn't eat a mechanism that would open the walls up."

Kaosu thought about it as well and came up with an idea of her own.

Miko/Kaosu: "Here, let me try something."

Approaching the wall, the Wrecking cadet armed her gravity hammer and charged it for a strike. Winding back, she swung it to the wall and hit it so hard that the wall burst open and plummeted to the ground like a domino. Everyone stared blankly for a few good seconds until the hacker turned to her and was a little bewildered.

Raf/Firewall: "Wait, you just blasted the wall with your hammer and didn't do it earlier?"

She turned to her friend and argued back.

Miko/Kaosu: "Hey, I thought it wasn't going to work. Besides, I was a little preoccupied with trying not to get crushed."

Jack though decided to ignore that and told them to keep moving.

Jack/Rodimus: "Either way, we've wasted enough time as it is. We have to get to the comm. facility and contact the others. Let's get going."

Soon enough the group got over the huge steel wall and transformed into their vehicle modes for the humans to get into. They then drove off the downed wall and raced down the hall.

---

Starscream remained shocked to see that the crusher failed him unexpectedly. Soundwave looked to him in a blank stare and didn't say anything. But the commander peered his optics to him and knew what he wanted him to do.

Starscream: "Don't give me that look. I will tell Megatron when the time is right. Are the troops ready?"

Soundwave remained quiet until he nodded in approval.

Starscream: "Then let's hope they destroy them before then. Showing him the bodies of these intruders will help our master regain his trust in me."

….

As he was plotting, the recruits were driving down the hallway, getting closer to their friends. Jack contacted Raf through the dashboard to ask a quick question.

Jack/Rodimus: "Well Firewall, where to now?"

The hacker checked his map again in his GPS and studied where to go next.

Raf/Firewall: "Well since our straight path's been blocked, we need to take an alternate route to get there. We're about to approach a T-junction in a few feet. We'll make a left, as it's the shortest route to get to our right path. Let's hope we don't run into anymore trouble."

Quickly, the group turned to the left and was making their way to the next hallway. But just as they turned, they encountered two Tankicons blocking their path with their shields positioned and their cannons fully charged. The group stopped immediately and realized that they were in trouble.

Miko/Kaosu: "You were saying?"

Rodimus then acted on instinct and told everyone to get out.

Jack/Rodimus: "Back up! BACK UP!"

Quickly, the three cranked their gear shafts to reverse and sped backwards to the opposite end. At the same time, the huge Cons fired their cannons and missed them by a mile. Repositioning their cannons, they fired yet again and missed yet again as the recruits backed up further. As they backed up enough, they applied the brakes and then shifted back to drive, causing them to turn in a 180-degree angle and getting them back to their proper driving position. They then sped straight away as the Tankicons fired another shot at them; only to miss again as the shots exploded behind them.

After a long drive, they reached another corner and made a left again to take the path to the communications center. Just then, more Tankicons were waiting for them in the four-way junction and decided to fire back. But they came up with another idea as they pointed their cannons upwards and fired on the ceiling. The blast caused metal debris to cave in and block their way. The group stopped dead in their tracks and couldn't believe what just happened. Vince looked at the blocked path and was disgusted by it.

Vince: "Great… We're blocked. Now what do we do?"

Jack looked to Raf for some help.

Jack/Rodimus: "Firewall?"

The hacker looked at the map on the screen and searched for another alternate route. Searching, he came up with a different direction.

Raf/Firewall: "Looks like there's a path to the left that can get us back on track. It can take us to the right direction."

Jack/Rodimus: "Then let's do it."

The three then revved their engines and turn left to approach the facility. The drive was a little long, but it was effective, given the situation they were in. Driving down the hall, they saw more guards coming to them and they stopped and transformed, with the humans popping out in the middle of the process. Knowing the situation they were in, they had to find a place to hide and fast. Looking to his right, Rodimus saw the metal door and told the others to get in.

Jack/Rodimus: "This way!"

The group then followed his orders and went into the door that opened up for them. The moment the doors closed, a group of Airadicons walked past this door, searching for the intruders.

---

As they were searching, the group looked at the door and waited for them to leave in case the drones got into this room. They got their weapons at the ready just in case they came in, hoping they didn't go through that door. As the footsteps grew fainter, they all breathed a sigh of relief and were glad that they were out of the woods.

Jack/Rodimus: "Phew… That was too close for comfort."

He and the others turned around to see where they were this time. When they turned, they were in the barracks loaded with Vehicons who were charging or talking to each other. When the recruits entered the room, all the Vehicons turned to them and were silent for a while and didn't know how to respond. Same went with the recruits, as they had no idea how to approach this. But Miko, being the troublemaker that she is, decided to pull an awkward greeting to the Vehicons.

Miko/Kaosu: "Uh… Wussup?"

The drones remained quiet for a few short seconds until they armed their blasters and prepared to fire. Jack got his shield up to protect him and his team from the incoming projectiles. They then fell back and got out of the hallway as the former teen was holding on to his shield. The moment the doors closed, Sparkplug ate away at the panel, locking the door completely as the Cons banged on the other side. Everyone took a breather and didn't see that coming at all.

Sam Witwicky: "Great. Of all the places we had to hide, we had to pick a room full of Cons. What luck."

Sari looked to him and smiled, knowing that it was over.

Sari: "Hey at least we got out of there. It couldn't get that worse."

Just as she said that…

Airadicon 9: "Hey! Stay where you are!"

The group turned to see the Airadicons that they spotted before coming back after hearing a bit of blaster fire not far from them. That's when they saw the recruits getting out of the barracks and intervened. Looking at this group, Vince turned to her and told everyone what they should really do.

Vince: "You know what, we really need to stop jinxing it."

Airadicon 9: "On the ground now!"

The group looked at each other and wondered what to do. Quickly, Kaosu got her cannons ready and pushed them all back with a wave of sonic blasts. Once they were temporarily out of commission, the young mech turned to the others and told them to move.

Jack/Rodimus: "We have to go! RUN!"

Quickly, the recruits picked the humans up and placed them on their shoulders as they ran like Hell. The Airadicons recovered from the push and went after them in a foot pursuit. As they were all running, another security camera saw the chase and recorded every moment of it.

---

In the security station, Starscream and Soundwave watched the intruders flee while the drones were chasing them. Looking at the scene, the second in command rubbed his chin and was a little confused.

Starscream: "Odd… They managed to reach this base without fear, but now they are running for their lives. What are they really planning? Doesn't matter. Where they're going, they are good as dead."

---

Back at the hall, the group continued to run as they had to find a way of getting those drones off their backs and continue their goal. All they needed was a quick plan and they're good. Running, they approached a corner and Raf told them to go in that direction.

Raf: "Make a right!"

The group turned to the right and was once again on the correct path. Now all they needed was to get the Cons off their tail pipes. But just as they were running, a part of a ceiling opened up and something came down from it. The team stopped as they saw a Gatling energy torrent turning to them as the drums started to roll. It then fired red energy projectiles at the recruits. Rodimus quickly stepped in and armed his shield again to deflect the coming onslaught. At the same time, Firewall and Kaosu got their combat weapons at the ready and were prepared for a fight. The humans though looked at the situation and felt like they were between a rock and a hard place.

Vince: "Well, what a pickle we are in. How are we going to get out of this?"

Raf waited for the drones to come after them until he peeked at the torrent and came up with a plan. Turning to the former teen, they told him to get down.

Raf/Firewall: "Rodimus, get down!"

Jack turned to Raf as he turned his servo into a tazer blaster, aiming it at the torrent on the ceiling. He quickly ducked down while holding his shield as the hacker fired an electric blast at the torrent. The moment it hit the weapon, it surged and shutdown temporarily. With it out of commission, Rodimus lowered his shield as Firewall hurried to the weapon. Once he was over it, a cable stuck out of the opened component on his arm and the wires connected to the inner workings of the gun itself. Jack looked at his friend and was a little confused at what he was planning.

Jack/Rodimus: "What are you doing, Firewall?"

The hacker turned to him with data streaming down his visor to tell him to focus on the forces.

Raf/Firewall: "Don't worry about me. Just keep those Cons busy."

He heard the hacker's plea and looked back to see the group of Cons getting closer by the shadows on the wall. Figuring that he needed time, Rodimus approached Kaosu and changed his other servo into his broad sword. He then looked to Vince and told him to get off.

Jack/Rodimus: "Vince, you better get off of my shoulder as it could get a little dangerous."

Vince looked to him and nodded in agreement.

Vince: "You don't have to tell me twice."

Miko turned to Sari too and told her the same thing.

Miko/Kaosu: "You too Sari. I might be a Wrecker in training, but I know that I cannot endanger any human lives."

Sari groaned to herself as she was being put to the sidelines.

Sari: "And I thought I was going to get to see some action."

The two recruits got down on one knee as the two humans climbed down quickly and landed on the metal floor. They then made a mad dash to a pillar on the wall and hid there, watching the fight from afar. As they were watching, the Airadicons turned the corner and saw the two intruders standing there in battle stance, ready to fight. One of them smirked under the faceplate and told them to surrender.

Airadicon 9: "Nowhere to run, Neutrals. Surrender peacefully and I promise that your punishment will be relatively painless."

Jack just smirked as he readied his sword and shield for a fight.

Jack/Rodimus: "That's not going to happen…"

He closed off his visor and mouth guard to protect his face and within seconds, the two charged in and struck quickly with the weapons they possessed. Rodimus used his sword to slice any drone close to him. But for some reason these Airadicons were avoiding them with ease. His guess was that these new Airadicons were very agile, but that was a probability. The Cons struck back with moves of their own as the young mech used his shield to block their attacks. One Airadicon was going to use his sharp digits to rip the visor and faceplate off of his helmet. Jack managed to duck low, avoiding the strike and found an opening as he used his shield to smack him up the chin. Leaving him temporarily immobile, he used his sword to slash him to the side, cutting his hip and energon, causing him to leak badly.

As Jack was fighting half of the Cons, Miko was doing what she does, wrecking with the best. With her gravity hammers, she was smacking them anyway she could as half of them getting knocked for a loop. The others though just swiftly dodged each of the attacks just like what happened with Jack as these new types of cons had some agility in them. The Wrecking cadet just had it with them as she charged the hammers to full power and slammed them both to the ground. The floor caused a ripple effect as the Airadicons lost their balance. This gave the Japanese femme the shot she needed as she swung her hammers and pounded the enemy in many directions. One of them she hit and sent him flying to the opposite end.

Meanwhile, both Sari and Vince both watched at a distance and couldn't believe that their friends were holding the Cons at bay. But as they were watching, one of the drones that Miko hit just now flew and landed on the metal ground with a screeching halt. The Con groaned to himself and started to get up to get back in the fight. But looking down, he spotted the two humans hiding. Thinking it's a good opportunity; he deployed his blaster and aimed it right at the two. Sari stood back as Vince got in front and charged his blaster to fire back. Sparkplug, who was next to its master, went into protective mode and charged in with its jaws opened and went on the attack. The Airadicon looked down to it and tried to fire at the creature. Yet the Scraplet sidestepped a couple of times while charging, as the firepower didn't faze it. The moment it got close enough, it jumped up and flew to the knee, eating away at it. The drone tried desperately to get it off of him and but that proved to be fruitless. In a matter of seconds, the Scraplet ate away on his knee and the knee itself snapped and broke in half. The Decepticon fell to the ground and couldn't get up. As he was trying desperately to recover, Vince saw the opening and charged his detached Con blaster to full power. With one hit, he shot him in the head and he was terminated on impact. Once he was dead, Sparkplug hurried to its master and jumped on her chest for a quick nudge as Sari hugged it tightly. Vince then looked to it and smiled.

Vince: "I'm really starting to like this guy. He's proven to be very effective."

Sari just looked to him and smirked at his compliment.

Sari: "Don't get to comfortable with my pet, Vince. The reason why it helped us is to protect me. Isn't that right Sparkplug?"

The Scraplet chirped as a sign of happiness to its master. As the fight was going on, Firewall was hacking into the torrent with his cable as data skimmed into his visor. Sam, who was still on his metallic shoulder, looked back at the fight and could tell that the other two recruits were getting their servos full. Looking back to the hacker, he told him to make it quick.

Sam Witwicky: "Firewall, you might want to hurry. Cause our friends are not going to last much longer."

Raf looked at the streams of data and bypassed a couple of firewalls just to access the torrent's controls. He was just about finished when he heard Sam's plea and told him he was just about finished.

Raf/Firewall: "Almost there Sam. Just need to bypass the friend or foe option, rewrite the code, and… There! I got it!"

He turned back to his friends and told them to get moving.

Raf/Firewall: "All right guys, I'm all set!"

Rodimus was using his shield to block and hold an attack by one Airadicon when he heard Raf say he's ready. Looking back and curious at what he was planning, he nodded in agreement and looked back to the drone and removed his weapons, giving him a pushing kick to keep him off. He then turned to Miko and told her to leave.

Jack/Rodimus: "Kaosu, we're leaving! Fallback to Firewall!"

The Wrecking cadet turned to Jack and nodded in response. Looking back to the Cons she was fighting, she switched her hammers into sonic blasters and pushed them back in a wave of sound. Once she was in the clearing, she reverted her weapons into her servos and ran away, just to follow Rodimus. The group slowly recovered from the blast and looked at the two leaving them. One got them got up and told them to follow.

Airadicon 9: "What are you waiting for?! After them!"

The group quickly got up and went after the Neutrals with their blasters armed and fired at them. The recruits ran to Raf's side while red projectiles were around it. Few of the blasters hit them, but they only grazed their armor on their shoulders and backs. Both Vince and Sari saw them leaving and decided to do the same since they didn't have time to get on their shoulders. So they ran as well as their legs could catch up with their friends. Soon enough, they were with both Firewall and Witwicky and looked to see the Airadicons getting closer to them. Jack got his blasters armed and was prepared for round two.

Jack/Rodimus: "I don't know what you did Firewall. But I hope you know what you're doing."

The hacker smirked to himself and told him that it was going to be okay.

Raf/Firewall: "Don't worry; I know what I'm doing."

The Airadicons were getting closer and had them there they wanted them. Just then, the blaster torrent over the ceiling came back to life and was preparing to fire. But it wasn't attacking the intruders. Instead, it went for the Airadicons as a few of them were shredded by the oncoming onslaught. The rest immediately panicked and ran for their lives.

Airadicon 9: "Everybody fallback!"

The group continued to run as the torrent continued to fire. The recruits and humans watched on and couldn't believe what they were seeing. Knowing what Raf actually did, Jack look to him and wanted an explanation.

Jack/Rodimus: "Firewall, that was your doing, wasn't it?"

Raf turned to him and smiled.

Raf/Firewall: "You could say that. I managed to bypass the torrent's system and reformat its targeting sensor, tricking it to believing that the Airadicons are us. Pretty unique don't you think?"

Kaosu looked to him and had an even wider smile.

Miko/Kaosu: "Unique? Dude, that was so awesome! You should do that more often."

The hacker turned to the Japanese femme and really liked the idea. But Jack rolled his optics around and decided to end this conversation.

Jack/Rodimus: "As much as we like that idea, that torrent won't last forever. We better get moving if we are to reach the facility in time."

To that end, Rodimus transformed into his Hummer H2 and opened the passenger side to let Vince in.

Jack/Rodimus: "Let's go."

Vince got into the Hummer while Raf and Miko transformed into their vehicle modes and let Sari and Sam in. The three recruits started to drive and made a mad dash to the comm. center, unbeknownst that another camera was watching them.

---

Starscream watched the action from the monitors and didn't like the end result one bit. The moment he watched the torrent trying to turn them into mulch, he thought that it was all over. But then he saw the smallest of mechs disabling it and hacking into it to make the torrent turn against the Cons. Looking at the map to see where they were going and the video feed of the fight, the commander was getting a little suspicious and wondered what their plan was.

Starscream: "These Neutrals are pretty resourceful huh? Wherever they are going, they're really desperate to get there. Doesn't matter though, as their journey will end soon enough. Soundwave, let's end their trip a little early."

Soundwave peeked to him with a simple nod and started inputting code to prevent them from going further.

---

Meanwhile, the group kept on driving as fast as they could, inching closer to where they needed to go. Raf checked his GPS again and knew where they were headed.

Raf/Firewall: "Looks like we're almost there guys. Just a few more minutes and we'll be in."

Rodimus took a breather and felt good about his chances.

Jack/Rodimus: "After what we've been through since we got here. It's pretty much smooth sailing from here on out."

Just as he said that, the door leading out of the hall, closed completely and prevented them from heading to the comm. facility. The group saw this and applied the brakes just seconds before they would crash into the door. The humans saw the blocked door and were completely shocked by it.

Vince: "Looks like a tidal wave blocked our smooth sailing."

The recruits opened their doors and let the human teens out. The moment they closed them, they transformed back into their bipedal modes and looked at the door in pure disgust.

Miko/Kaosu: "Well that's just perfect. We are now officially locked out!"

Sari looked back to see if there was another wall and was glad that they weren't getting crushed again.

Sari: "Well, at least on the bright side, we don't have to worry about getting flattened."

Just as she said that, the group heard a huge explosion from the distance. Looking back, the team wondered what that sound was.

Sam Witwicky: "What was that?"

Raf heard that explosion and knew what that sound means.

Raf/Firewall: "Sounds like they managed to blow up that sentry gun I hacked. Guess they are pulling out all the stops in killing us."

Suddenly, footsteps were being heard as they all looked back to see the multiple hallways in the long corridors.

Jack/Rodimus: "Worse yet, now we've got more trouble close by. We got to hide quickly before they see us."

Miko looked around and noticed a metal door close by. So she pointed to it and told the others to go in there.

Miko/Kaosu: "Over there! We can hide in that room until they leave."

Rodimus looked to that room and was a little hesitant after what happened just recently. But given the fact that whatever was coming could be a whole lot worse; he had no choice in the matter.

Jack/Rodimus: "No other option left for us. Everyone into the room!"

Quickly, the group hurried into the room as the door opened for them. The moment they entered the room and the doors closed, a large group of Decepticons drones swarmed into the hall where the team had been. They all looked around and noticed that there were no Neutrals anywhere. Looking around, the Airadicon contacted the commander and told him the bad news.

Airadicon 9: "Commander Starscream, we're at the location. But the Neutrals are nowhere to be found."

The voice of Starscream came into his comm. and it was incredibly loud.

Starscream: "What do you mean they're not found!? They couldn't disappear out of thin air! FIND THEM!"

So the group looked around the hallway, checking every crevice where they could hide.

---

During that time, Firewall overheard the conversation and didn't like those odds one bit. He turned to the others and told them the situation.

Raf/Firewall: "Bad news, now they're going to start searching for us."

The former teen heard that and wasn't in the best of moods.

Jack/Rodimus: "Scrap… That means they will soon check this room. Looks like we better get ready for a serious fight."

The Wrecking cadet heard that and got herself ready to fight. But just as she was about to do that, she wondered what room they were in. Turning back to where they were, she found a lit button and pressed it. The moment the lights turned on, her optics were wide and surprised, yet she had a smirk soon after. Turning to the group, she told them what she found.

Miko/Kaosu: "Oh boys. Look what I found."

The two mechs and the three humans turned to the Japanese femme and wondered what she wanted this time. When they turned to her, they were as amazed at what they were looking at. Surrounding them were stacks of weapons and gadgets in Cybertronian size. And a wide variety to boot, from detonators, cutters, energy nets, and smoke bombs. It was Christmas morning for the femme as she looked at all of the weapons at their disposal.

Miko/Kaosu: "Whoa! Look at all of this hardware! This is super sweet!"

Jack looked at all the weapons and soon enough figured out where they were now.

Jack/Rodimus: "Looks like we're in the armory. And to think Decepticons with installed blasters and weapons were going to be a problem. Now we've got them with even more tech to destroy us. Team Prime will have their servos full when we get them through."

Suddenly, they heard a voice from behind the door.

Airadicon 9: "Did you hear that? It's coming from the Armory. Surround the door! Make sure they don't escape!"

Rodimus heard that and could tell it's bad.

Jack/Rodimus: "Perfect… Now the Cons know we're here. This is going to complicate everything."

But then, he heard a clicking noise from behind and turned to see what it was. That was when he saw Miko holding a light net cannon in her arms.

Miko/Kaosu: "Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go out there and properly say hello to them."

There was a brief silence within the group until Jack spoke up.

Jack/Rodimus: "Kaosu, do you even know how to use that?"

The Wrecking Cadet shrugged it off and told him that she knew by experience.

Miko/Kaosu: "Rodimus, you're looking at the femme that's the best player in Call of Duty. I know what I'm doing."

That got the young Mech smirking as he reminded her what happened the last time.

Jack/Rodimus: "Oh really? Cause the last time I checked, you got beaten by a certain cybernetic girl."

That sentence left the Japanese femme in a completely blank state as she remembered the time she got beaten by Elsa de Sica when she forced her to play some video games. It didn't go well for her.

She quickly shook off that thought and walked past him, bumping on his shoulder and feeling a little annoyed.

Miko/Kaosu: "Shut up and grab a weapon. Things are about to get loud."

The humans heard all of this and were a little confused; Vince especially since he never thought these robots could play Modern Warfare games. They all turned to Firewall and talked about it.

Vince: "Never really thought you bots played Call of Duty."

Then Sam turned to the hacker and asked about what Jack said.

Sam Witwicky: "What does he mean by 'she was beaten by a cybernetic girl'?"

He turned to the young Witwicky and decided not to explain it further.

Raf/Firewall: "You don't want to know."

---

Back outside, the large group of drones was waiting outside the door, knowing that the intruders were in there. But all that waiting was driving them a little impatient as the one in charge approached the door and told them to get out.

Airadicon 9: "All right Neutrals, we know you're all in there! There's nowhere to run or hide. Come on out right now or we'll force you out of there!"

There was a bit of silence until the doors started to open up slowly. The drone looked at it and felt relieved that they were surrendering.

Airadicon 9: "There we go."

The group pointed their weapons and waited for the intruders to come out. But when the door was fully opened, Kaosu stood there pointing the net cannon to the group with a wicked smile to her face.

Miko/Kaosu: "Surprise!"

She then pulled the trigger and the energy net came out of the cannon. It grabbed the Airadicon and wrapped him up completely, making him feel trapped and he fell to the ground in a thud. The team looked down to the drone struggling to escape. They then looked up to the Wrecking cadet and before they could react, she armed her cannons and blew them away with a sonic blast. With them out of the way temporarily, she turned to her friends and told them to move.

Miko/Kaosu: "All right, now's our chance to strike!"

Quickly, both Firewall and Rodimus changed in and began their attack. Rodimus used his sword to cut off their heads as they were struggling to get up. Firewall used the tentacle-like cables on his arms to wrap the others around their legs and swung them around like a bunch of action figures. They were slammed into each other and knocked unconscious. But then a Combaticon came up to him and was about to pound him. The hacker peeked to see it coming and jumped with a side step to get out of the line of impact. During the jump, he took something from his back and threw it right at the huge soldier. That device was an E.M.P. charge as it connected to the brute and sent electrical pulses into his system. He convulsed for a few seconds until plummeting to the floor in deep stasis. Raf looked to the downed Combaticon and was glad that he was out for the count.

Raf/Firewall: "Well, got to admit. This Decepticon tech has proven to be really effective."

Just then, he felt blasters on his back that merely grazed him and turned with his tazer blasters online, firing at those that hit him. Meanwhile, Rodimus was battling Cons on his own and was using his sword and shield to attack and defend himself simultaneously. He used his energy shield to stop some swipes at his face, and then went offensive by cutting the drone's arms off, letting energon and circuitry spill out. Thrusting his sword forward, he impaled the drone through the spark chamber and terminated him completely.

Just as he did that, two cannon shells came out of nowhere and missed him completely, creating a huge explosion that blew up a few Cons in the process. Looking back, he saw two Tankicons far from him, ready to fire another shot. With quick thinking, he pivoted and turned, swinging his sword with the corpse of the con on the pointed end. That dead body was removed from the tip and flew straight at the two heavy drones. They opened fire on the corpse, which exploded in a ball of flames. The two placed their shields up to protect themselves from the blast. As soon as the smoke cleared, the Tankicons looked up through their metal shielding and saw the former teen still standing there. So taking aim, they fired their shells straight towards him. But strangely enough, the shells phased through him and hit other Cons by accident. Just after that, Jack's image fizzled out and he vanished completely. All that was left was a small disk with a green light that faded. What the disk turned out to be was a holo disk designed by the Cons to create holographic decoys of the drones. Raf managed to hack into the disk's system to change the image to that of Rodimus himself. The two tank cons removed their shields, confused with what had just happened. Unfortunately for them, the arms that held their shield plating were cut off unexpectedly and they were caught by surprise. Before the two could react, their heads were chopped off and they fell to the ground, armless and headless. The moment they got killed off, there was a visible outline of a Cybertronian, until Jack's image appeared. What happened was that Rodimus used a small bracelet that made him invisible, blending him into his environment. He'd taken both the bracelet and holo disk for an emergency in case things got hairy - and after what happened with the Tankicons, he knew he had a chance of pulling this off. So when he threw the dead drone at them, and while they fired on it, he set his holo disk on the ground to keep them distracted while arming his camo-bracelet to make himself invisible, so he could charge up to them and cut them up. Once the fight was over, he took a deep breather and was glad he got out of the mess.

Jack/Rodimus: "Well, that wasn't too hard."

But then, more blaster fire came out of nowhere and grazed him a bit. Getting his shield up, he deflected the shots while using his blaster to shoot them through their spark chambers. The fight was intense, but the recruits were holding their own. But then there were others on the farther end in sniping position about to get a direct aim on the Neutrals' heads. Suddenly, Sparkplug came out of the blue and latched on to one of the Cons, eating his blaster. The drone panicked and tried to shoot it off of him. The Scraplet then began eating the Airadicon's wires as it triggered the firing mechanism, shooting random shots just about everywhere. A few of those shots hit the other sniping drones in the head, shutting them down completely. The Scraplet then ate the arm completely and detached the blaster in the process, causing it to fall to the floor. The Decepticon looked at his detached arm, annoyed by the metal creature. But before he could react, he got shot in the back by a full powered blaster right into the spark chamber, causing him to collapse to the ground in a loud thud. Coming out of the armory were Vince, Sari, and Sam as they were watching from the distance and saw that the other Cons were ready to snipe at them. If it hadn't been for Sari commanding her pet to attack one of them and Vince to have enough time charging his blaster, the recruits would've been done for. Sparkplug headed back to its master and jumped onto her arms while Vince cooled off his blaster and smirked to himself.

Vince: "Man, for a bunch of Cons, they aren't that tough."

Sam just looked to him and gave a deep glare.

Sam Witwicky: "Easy for you to say. You've been fighting them in Jasper since they came."

The bully turned to him and smirked to himself.

Vince: "What can I say? I have experience in dealing with aliens."

Sam raised an eyebrow and found that to be a bit over the top.

Sam Witwicky: "Yeah… Right…"

While they were arguing, the fight continued. Kaosu was in the thick of it as Airadicons of both purple and silver surrounded her. With her hammers at the ready, she swung and hit any Con that came near her, sending them flying off in many directions. One came up from behind, but she sensed it coming and turned to give him a straight up hit in the faceplate. Another came to the left and used his sharp digits to strike her on her delicate face. She quickly ducked down after seeing that and used the first swing to knock him off his pedes and the second one to send him flying into a small group of Cons close by. Just then, she was swarmed by more drones from behind and pinned her to the ground, making sure she didn't get up. Yet the Wrecking cadet knew this was going to happen as she shifted her hammers into her sonic blasters and placed them on the ground. Firing on them, she pushed herself up and hit herself to the ceiling. Luckily for her, the Cons holding her down absorbed the hit and they fell to the ground with their backs completely sore as she landed with both her feet unharmed. Switching back to her hammers, she knocked every Airadicon she took down, sending them sprawling in different directions. But looking up, she noticed a few more Combaticons charging toward her and groaned in complete annoyance. Getting into position, she was about to take them on. But then, a cable appeared and attached itself to a wall, right where the brutes' legs were. They all then tripped and fell to the floor, piling on to each other and struggling to get up. The Japanese femme looked at that, confused as to what had happened. But turning to the left where the cable fired, she saw Firewall with his cable extended and used as a trip wire. Retracting the cable back into his arm compartment, he smiled and asked if she's all right in the simplest of ways.

Raf/Firewall: "Need a servo?"

Kaosu smiled and was glad that she got help to begin with. But the smile soon faded to shock when she saw two Airadicons behind the hacker, ready to shoot him in the back. Reacting quickly, she switched her weapons and fired her sonic blaster over him, pushing the two drones away. Raf was a little shocked by what she did, but looking back to see the two guards knocked for a loop, he was a little relieved. Miko then smirked and responded back in her own way.

Miko/Kaosu: "Nah… I can handle it on my own."

Firewall laughed a little, yet couldn't help feeling a bit nervous around her. That's when he spotted more Airadicons heading toward them and armed his tazer blasters for a huge bout. The Wrecking cadet noticed it too and turned to see the Airadicons ready to fight. Getting her hammers armed, the two got together and attacked the group with a one-two combo. Raf used his tazer blasters to short-circuit the drones and Miko hit the immobile opponents with her gravity hammers. Still, the fight gravitated toward the Con's side as they had strength in numbers. There was still far too many of them and they didn't have the time to fight them all. With their backs pressed against each other, they knew they had to do something and they knew they had to finish this. Looking to each other, the two nodded and made an agreement.

Miko/Kaosu: "Getting a little crowded in here! Looks like we have to finish this!"

She turned to Jack, who was a little preoccupied with his own battles. He was using his sword and shield to protect himself against the Decepticon he was battling. There were blows left and right as Rodimus was trying to block them with his shield. With his sword, he tried to strike him down but the Airadicon avoided those attacks perfectly. The fight went back and forth constantly as the former teen held his own. Seeing him fight, Kaosu knew that he needed their help in getting rid of all of them.

Miko/Kaosu: "Rodimus! We could use some help!"

The young mech turned to the Wrecking Cadet's voice and knew what she was trying to say. With that, he turned to the enemy he was facing and decided to make an agreement.

Jack/Rodimus: "Understood."

To that, he used his shield to smack the drone in the helm and then a quick back kick to the fuel tank, leaving him cringing in pain. He then used his sword to pivot and strike the Con down toward him and chopped off his head execution style. With him out of the way, Jack transformed into a Hummer H2 and sped toward them, running down the group of purple and silver drones in his path. Once he got to them, he transformed back and joined his friends, using his blasters and targeting sensor on his visor to shoot them down one by one. Kaosu and Firewall used their weapons to electrocute and push back the Cons. As they were fighting, Miko looked back to him and asked if he had it.

Miko/Kaosu: "So, you got that weapon?"

He turned to her and nodded, worried about what would happen if he armed it.

Jack/Rodimus: "I do. But I don't know if this will work or not once it's armed."

Miko/Kaosu: "Then what are you waiting for? Throw it up and arm your shield!"

Jack then turned to see the humans and could tell that they were in the line of fire. So he told them to get moving.

Jack/Rodimus: "Guys, get to cover! This is going to get extremely messy!"

The humans overheard him and knew what they were about to do. So quickly, they got back into the storage room and closed the door to keep them safe. A few of the Cons saw this and tried to follow them. Suddenly, electrical projectiles appeared and hit them all, causing them to convulse and hit the ground hard. Not far from the watchful eye, Firewall fired those electrical bolts from his blasters and gave a threatening warning to those already in stasis.

Raf/Firewall: "No one is hurting any more humans."

The three humans made it into the armory and closed the doors. Once they were in the clear, Rodimus used his freehand to take something out of his secret compartment. What he took out was a round device with a few prods coming out the sides, top, and bottom. It was it a pulse grenade to wipe out anything within a half a mile radius. Pushing the button to arm it, he took a deep breath and tossed it into the air.

Jack/Rodimus: "Everyone get your head down!"

Quickly, the recruits got their heads down while the young mech got his shield up and went down with them, charging it to full power and covering the three. Then, the pulse grenade detonated and exploded, creating a blinding light that pushed the Cons back and ripped everything in its path. That same pulse pushed the door that was blocking their path and tore it open in a matter of milliseconds. No sooner did the blast hit, than it disappeared. The group remained in the high-powered shield unharmed. Jack removed his shield and he and the others surveyed the damage. What they saw were drones heavily damaged or offline, metal walls torn to bits, lights flickering on the ceiling and the door blown clear through. The three were in complete and utter silence as the Wrecking cadet whistled to herself.

Miko/Kaosu: "Damn… Look at this mess. Gotta say, this Decepticon tech is pretty handy. Why can't the Autobots have this type of equipment with them? I bet they could do a lot of damage against the Cons."

Rodimus then turned to her and explained why they wouldn't want that.

Jack/Rodimus: "Kaosu, this is Decepticon weaponry we're talking about. Even if our friends had this it would still be dangerous. Hell, that pulse grenade wiped out everyone around us. Imagine what it would do if human civilians had been in the line of fire. It would be pretty catastrophic!"

Miko then looked back at the wreck and realized that he did have a point. Destroying these Decepticons with these weapons were a lot of fun. But if any of those weapons were used against the humans… She immediately shuddered at the thought of that and decided to not think of it anymore.

Miko/Kaosu: "Okay, you make a very good case, Rodimus."

Just then, the doors to the armory opened and the three humans and one Scraplet came out to survey the damage as well. Vince watched on and was as surprised as everyone else.

Vince: "Man, and I thought what happened at the sewers was bad. This is a whole lot worse."

Sam looked at the mess too and agreed with him.

Sam Witwicky: "Tell me about it. This place is really like a war zone, both figuratively and literally."

The Scraplet then jumped out of Sari's arms and hurried to the corpse of one of the Airadicons, chewing away on the metal alloy. Sari just looked to it and found it to be a bit amusing.

Sari: "Well I got to say; at least my Sparkplug is going to get all the iron it needs."

Just as she said that, the three recruits approached them and told them that they can't stand around all day.

Jack/Rodimus: "Now is not the time to celebrate. It will only be a matter of time before more of them show up the moment they hear news of this. We have to get to the facility and regain communications with the team.

Vince looked up to the former teen and asked how they were going to do this.

Vince: "Well I hope you have a plan for getting us in there. Cause what we've been though, that place must be heavily guarded by now."

Rodimus turned to the armory and saw the gadgets that they'd borrowed moments ago. With a smirk on his face he came up with a plan while telling Vince about it.

Jack: "Oh, I think I know of a way of getting in."

---

Back at the security station, Starscream saw the fight through the security cameras and could tell that the recruits were pulling out all the stops. The moment Rodimus threw the pulse grenade; the entire picture went static as the camera was completely destroyed. Not to mention that the map of the hallway where the Neutrals had been now showed no Con bleeps on it as they all vanished in an instant. He then growled to himself and just about had it with these intruders.

Starscream: "Of all that is pure wickedness. Is it really that hard to get rid of three Neutrals?! I swear these young troublemakers are becoming a pain in my aft!"

He then crossed his arms and turned his head away in complete disgust. Soundwave then looked at the end results of the battle and didn't like it one bit. Figuring now would be a good time; he approached the commander and tapped him on the shoulder. Scream looked back to him and wondered what he wanted this time. Pointing, he aggressively gestured him to do what was right. Sighing to himself, he decided to do the right thing.

Starscream: "All right fine. We'll go talk to our master regarding the situation."

---

Meanwhile, the entrance to the communication center was blocked off by two Vehicons standing post, making sure that their optics were on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly, they heard footsteps in the distance and turned to the right to see what it was. With their blasters armed, they pointed in that direction, only to see a young human girl walking out of the hall, looking a little lost. Turning to the two drones, she smiled and asked for some help.

Sari: "Oh hi there. Sorry to intrude, but I feel a little lost. Do you know where the little girl's room is?"

The two drones looked at each other very blankly, never thinking that a human could be here. But being that a human was in front of them, they pointed their blasters at her and were going to evaporate her. Suddenly, and without warning, a pair of electric projectiles hit them in the back and they were convulsing in a matter of moments. As they fell to the ground in stasis, a few individuals came out from the other hallway. They were the recruits Jack, Raf, and Miko and the humans Sam Witwicky and Vince and the Scraplet Sparkplug on the Wrecking Cadet's shoulder. Sari looked to the group and smiled at what she had just done.

Sari: "How was that? Nice distraction I put together, huh?"

Rodimus looked at her and smiled at what she'd accomplished. They knew that the entrance would be guarded and they needed to get past them before they could enter. That was when Sari came up with a plan to distract them while they attacked from behind. Obviously enough, the plan worked flawlessly.

Rodimus: "Excellent thinking Sari. Never really thought the plan would work this well."

The teen girl rubbed the back of her head and explained her experience.

Sari: "What can I say? I usually do that in school to distract the bullies while Sam tries to make an escape."

Sam heard that and groaned in agony.

Sam Witwicky: "Did you really have to remind them about that. I'm still having nightmares about the jocks trying to stuff me in the locker. Not a pleasant sight let me tell you."

The hacker looked to him and remembered about his time.

Raf/Firewall: "Welcome to my world Sam."

Rodimus remembered about that too and tried to forget about his human life, being tortured by Vince. Not to mention that he's right next to him and he didn't want to open old wounds. So he let that slide and focused on the task at hand.

Jack/Rodimus: "Well whatever the case, at least we made it to the communications facility. Now all we need to do is contact the team and let them in."

But Vince reminded him again about what was going to be behind those doors.

Vince: "And what about the forces behind that door? You do realize that they will be waiting for you, right?"

The former teen turned to the bully and told him that it will be all right.

Jack/Rodimus: "Don't get too worked up about it. As long as I have my plan at the ready, we'll take them out before they can deliver a strike."

He then approached the metal doors while Kaosu felt a little worried.

Miko/Kaosu: "Hope this plan of yours works, Rodimus, cause we didn't come all this way just to get shot down."

Jack/Rodimus: "Relax Kaosu, I know what I'm doing. Just make sure you're ready for that full frontal assault you've been wanting to do."

He then took a deep breath and was ready to fight as he put his hand into the secret compartment getting something important.

---

Meanwhile, inside the communications center, groups of Vehicons were at their posts, keeping their audio receptors focused on communications from the patrol squads looking for Autobot survivors while listening in on human chatter about preparing for an invasion. Meanwhile, a bunch of Airadicons were on guard duty, watching the drones' every move and remaining on high alert ever since the Neutrals made their presence. As they were waiting, they all heard a knock at the door and it got everyone's attention. One of the Airadicons waved it off and thought it was the guards outside, so he approached the door and pushed a button to open the door. But once the metal door opened fully there was no one guarding the outside. The drone was a little confused and wondered where they could have gone. But just as he was going to step past the doors, a disk of some kind rolled on the floor and went between his knees. He looked down to the disk as it made a quick stop in the middle of the floor. The rest of the Cons saw this and crowded around to see what the disk was. That was when they noticed a red light blinking slowly and quickening after every beep. As it went into a loud beep, it ignited and engulfed the entire room in a white light. That very light blinded every con within the room as their optics went into complete static. Just as they were blinded, a voice came from the outside and told everyone to charge.

Jack/Rodimus: "NOW! ATTACK!"

Within nano clicks, a sword impaled the Airadicon that opened the door and lifted him up high in the air. At the same time, the lone figure armed his blaster and fired a few shots right at the three cons through the spark chamber, killing them off. Two more figures then appeared between him and began their own assault. The one on the left used his tazer blaster to full power and shot the first five, knocking them out completely. The one on the right armed her cannons and pushed them back with a pulse of sound. The rest of the drones slowly regained their sight and charged in to the attackers. Unfortunately, they were partially blind and didn't know where these intruders were located. That gave the team the opening they needed as they went ahead to bring them all down. The one in the middle used his sword to cut some of the Cons on the arms and heads. The small one used the cables to wrap around the enemies' bodies and in one quick move crushed them like soda cans. And the femme used her hammers to pound them all to the ground. As the light faded completely, the battle was over and all that was left were the carcasses of the Vehicons and Airadicons with Rodimus, Firewall, and Kaosu standing tall. Once the fight was over, the human teens came in and looked at the carnage left by the recruits.

Sari: "My God… That's so insane!"

Vince: "Insane?! Girl, you haven't seen what I've been through. Now that's insane!"

As the humans looked at the massacre, Rodimus turned to the Wrecking cadet and gave her orders.

Jack/Rodimus: "Kaosu, get the two Vehicons inside the room and lock the doors. We can't let the Cons know that we're in here."

Miko turned to Jack and nodded in agreement.

Miko/Kaosu: "Got it."

As she headed back outside to get the two Cons into the comm. room, Jack turned to Raf and told him what he should do.

Jack/Rodimus: "Okay Firewall, we're here. Head on down to one of the consoles and regain communication with Team Prime."

The hacker looked to him and nodded as well, knowing that they had to get to the task at hand.

Raf/Firewall: "On it."

He approached the nearest comm. console and began his work. Opening the compartments on his back and arms, the cables penetrated the controls and the wires slithered into the circuitry. He immediately began his work as data streamed down his visors. He bypassed the firewalls, and entered the main command system to begin regaining connection with the Autobot base. As he was doing that, Rodimus went to the kids and lent them a hand. The three then jumped onto his servo and he lifted them up, approaching the console Raf was using. The former teen went next to him and asked if he's getting near the connection.

Jack/Rodimus: "Well Firewall, are we in?"

The hacker gave a quick glance and went back to the screen, explaining what he was doing.

Raf/Firewall: "Just about. But first I need to make sure that the Cons don't suspect us in the room. This is still an active area and if any of them discover us in here, especially Soundwave, they will get in here and pulverize us."

Getting the humans on the control console, he looked to him and asked what he's going to do.

Jack/Rodimus: "So what are you planning to do?"

Firewall looked through his visor and explained his plan.

Raf/Firewall: "Well first I've installed a crawler into the system to mask our activities. So while we contact our friends, the cons will think the drones are monitoring any Con activity and contacting any patrolling squad that's searching for our friends. I've even placed a worm into the system so all the consoles will do the same thing as this one. Can't let them find out that only one console is operating."

Miko, who managed to get the two Vehicons into the comm. facility and closed the door, headed to the two recruits and asked about the other problem.

Miko/Kaosu: "And what about Soundwave? I'm certain that he will look into it and get all suspicious."

The hacker looked to her and told her that he had that covered.

Raf/Firewall: "He won't find out. I've installed a repeater program into the console. It will continue to give out the all-clear signal every five minutes and it will be untraceable. The cons' eyes and ears won't even trace the signal to us."

The humans listened in and were surprised at all the work he had done.

Sam Witwicky: "Boy, you came prepared, didn't ya?"

Raf looked at him and told him that he's a natural.

Raf/Firewall: "I've been doing this for a long time Sam. Hacking into any computer is pretty much my job."

Vince heard that and remembered a young hacker in school. Yet he didn't realize that this so called hacker was close to him and is now a Cybertronian.

Vince: "Hacking into any computer huh? Kind of remind me of a little kid I picked on back his high school, Raphael. In fact, you sort of look like him, only more… Robotic."

The hacker turned to him and remained quiet. Vince didn't really know that it was actually Raf behind that Cybertronian faceplate, and he couldn't reveal himself just yet. So shrugging it off, he decided to lie to him about it.

Raf/Firewall: "Really now. Well maybe one day I will meet him and let him know you told me about it."

He continued to input the remaining code and finish the connections to the base. After a few short seconds, he finished his work and told the others about it.

Raf/Firewall: "I'm in! I'm connected to the Autobot's communication channel and have blocked off any interference from the Cons. Ready to open the channel on your say so."

Rodimus was a little tense as his fists tightened. After all the trouble they've been through, he can now see Arcee again; he can be with her again. Taking a breath, he told Raf to begin.

Jack/Rodimus: "Do it."

Immediately, the hacker typed in a few key sequences and opened the channel to the Autobot's base. The moment he did that, Jack stepped in and started the communication.

Jack/Rodimus: "This is Rodimus contacting the Lake Erie Autobot base. We have reached the Decepticon fortress and have occupied their comm. facility. Do you read me?"

There was a bit of silence as the recruits waited for a response. After a few short seconds, they heard the voice of Ratchet on the other end.

Ratchet: "I read you loud and clear Rodimus. What took you so long? Your mom was about to have a panic attack. I thought this was supposed to be a recon mission."

The young mech chuckled, knowing that his mother was worried sick about him. But he remained cool and collective and he explained what happened.

Jack/Rodimus: "Good to hear your voice again Ratchet. Sorry about the long wait. We had a little bit of a misadventure. But we've managed to reach our destination without getting destroyed. Do you have our location on the ground bridge map?"

He waited for the medic to respond and gave him the good news.

Ratchet: "Yes, I trace your call into the middle of the tower and I'm going to start locking to your coordinates. Stand by while we bridge to your location. And Rodimus, good to hear from you too."

Rodimus nodded as he ended the communication. But then he looked down to the humans and wondered how they will respond with what they've encountered. Not only that Vince and the survivors they've discovered in the sewers, but also the Scraplet Sari is keeping as a pet. This is going to be an interesting moment.

---

Meanwhile at the throne room on the top of the tower, Starscream and Soundwave were standing in front of their leader as the commander explained to Megatron about what happened. Ever since the news of the Neutrals entering the Darkmount, Scream kept it a secret until the Neutrals were destroyed. He thought maybe giving him the bodies of the intruders would cement his trust with the leader of the Decepticons. But after one failure after another, he soon realized that he had to tell his master about it and Soundwave was losing so much patience. So feeling defeated, he decided to let Megatron in on the news. He hopes that maybe this news will let him be kind to him. Unfortunately…

Megatron: "The young Neutrals have infiltrated my citadel?! WHY DIDN'T YOU INFORM ME ABOUT THIS SOONER!?"

Starscream stood back and cowered in fear, knowing that the warlord didn't like the news one bit. Soundwave could tell that he was being a little hesitant, so he approached his master and played back what the second in command told him on his visor.

Soundwave: "Until we can confirm that it's these Neutrals that have passed our defenses, I won't take this news to our leader."

The warlord listened to that and was a little annoyed.

Megatron: "Did he now?"

The second in command cleared his throat and explained his reasons.

Starscream: "Understand Lord Megatron, I was keeping this a secret until I could destroy these Neutrals. Giving that they were now in our turf, it would've given us an advantage."

The leader remained silent, as he wasn't impressed by this.

Megatron: "Have you already forgotten, Starscream, that these Neutrals are tougher then we at first suspected. Even if they did enter our tower, they will still be dominant, no matter what experience they have. Try to remember that next time."

Knockout and Shockwave stood beside the throne of Megs looking at the troubled commander as the medic retorted something out loud.

Knockout: "That's Starscream for you. Always have to be both arrogant and self obsessed."

Megatron: "Whatever the case, the intruders are within Darkmount and we must find them. Soundwave, contact every station about the Intruders and have them update me when their sectors are secured. If they spot any of those young Cybertronians, bring them to me alive. I do not want them hurt since I have some questions regarding their arrival."

Soundwave nodded as he returned to the security station. At the same time, the leader looked down to his commander and demanded something from him.

Megatron: "Starscream, since you've been failing more so then usual, I do believe now would be a good time to prove to me that you are still trustworthy as my returning second in command. To that end, I will be keeping a close optic on you to see where your loyalty stands."

Scream blinked a little and couldn't believe what he just heard.

Starscream: "What?! What do you mean by that? Wasn't giving you the Omega Keys enough to trust me?"

Megatron: "Indeed… But given recent events as of late, I'm starting to have doubts about your role as my commanding officer. These intruders, these young Neutrals, have become too much for our army to take on. We must be vigilant against these Younglings, for if they managed to make it this far, they might offer some help to some enemies of our own."

---

At the same time he said that, the recruits succeeded in getting to the communication facility in Darkmount and managed to regain communication with Team Prime. So they waited for their friends to come while the humans stood by on the control console. Just as they were waiting, there was the sound of a swirling noise from behind and they turned around to see a green portal appearing out of nowhere. To the recruits, they knew what it meant as Rodimus stepped forward, prepared for them.

Jack/Rodimus: "Here we go."

After a few quick seconds, multiple figures appeared from within as they slowly stepped out of the portal. The first to come out was Arcee, ready for a fight. Behind her was Ratchet and Altra, formally known as June. Following them was the scout Bumblebee and the Elite Guard member Smokescreen. Lastly, Bulkhead and Wheeljack, two great Wreckers, came out, ready to bust heads. As soon as they all got out, the recruits looked on with pleasing smiles and they headed to them. Miko reached her Wrecking teachers and gave them a strong Wrecking grip to both of them.

Miko/Kaosu: "Bulkhead! Wheeljack! So nice of you to come to the party!"

Both Wreckers looked to their cadet and were pleased to see her in one piece with the exception of a few dents and bruises.

Wheeljack: "So nice to see you too, my young Wrecker. Could see that you warmed up the party for us. You didn't destroy all the Cons, did you?"

The Japanese femme shook her helm and told him that she didn't go that far.

Miko/Kaosu: "Nope. But I had to pull out some stops on a bunch of Decepticreeps that were trying to stop me. Don't worry though; there are still plenty of clog heads for you to tear apart."

Bulk chuckled about it and patted his student on her shoulder.

Bulkhead: "That's our Kaosu, Jackie. She knows how to Wreck with the best."

As she was talking to the Wreckers, Firewall approached Bumblebee and was glad to see his best friend again. They then gave a strong shake as Bumble chirped in excitement.

Bumblebee: (Raf! So good to see you again! I thought for certain that I was going to lose you once more.)

The hacker laughed it up a little and told him that he wasn't as weak as before.

Raf/Firewall: "Come on Bee, you know that nothing can take me down that easily."

Just as the two were talking, Arcee and June approached Jack and they were happy to see him again after waiting that long. The nurse's reaction was to rush to her son and gave him a motherly hug. After a brief hug, she looked to her son and had that protectiveness in her.

June/Altra: "Rodimus! Oh I was so worried about you! Can you imagine how hard it was for me to wait for you all this time? I was scared to death!"

Jack could tell that his mother was so upset about him going on this mission since they left, and who could blame her? She was all the worse for wear and she never thought that her only son would go on a dangerous assignment such as this and get himself hurt. But she was glad that her child was still alive and now wouldn't have to worry about him getting hurt anymore. The former teen noticed her worries and eased her completely.

Jack/Rodimus: "It's okay mom. It's all right. I'm here. I'm safe. You don't have to worry anymore."

June nodded, knowing that her son is now safe. Arcee then stepped right in and congratulated him on a job well done.

Arcee: "Excellent work, partner. I knew we all could count on you."

Jack looked to the two-wheeler and smirked to himself.

Jack/Rodimus: "Oh don't be so honest Arcee, we were just lucky."

But then Ratchet came in and told him not to downplay their accomplishment.

Ratchet: "Luck just doesn't cut it. What you did was a brave thing. Sneaking into an enemy's base of operation with very little training, no recruit could survive that. But you? You and the others managed to get through with flying colors."

Jack turned to the medic and told him that it was okay - while confused at his presence.

Jack: "Believe me when I say this Ratch, it wasn't that easy. Like I said before, the recon mission didn't go as planned and we barely survived by the skin of our teeth. But we managed to pull out all the stops just to reach this place. By the way, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back at the base?"

The medic looked at him sternly and explained why he's with the team.

Ratchet: "Optimus is imprisoned in this fortress, Rodimus. As the head medic, I would need to aid him on any injuries that he sustained during his captivity."

Jack/Rodimus: "But if you are here, then who's in charge of the base?"

It was then that Arcee joined in and answered who's there now.

Arcee: "Professor Sumdac is at the controls and in charge of the bridge. We've already given him the steps for operating the bridge and how to work it. As soon as we save Optimus, you will contact the base and Sumdac will get us back home."

Jack nodded as he understood why the medic was here in the first place. But Arcee decided to get back to the task as hand and asked her partner about the situation.

Arcee: "Alright, you got us in. What do we have?"

Rodimus looked to the femme and explained the situation.

Jack/Rodimus: "Well, I don't know where to begin. On our way to Darkmount we encountered a few hostiles, Vehicons and Airadicons here and there. But then we encountered some new classes we'd never seen before. A bunch of tanks, heavies, some shredding machines, and Airadicons with a silver paintjob. Firewall did some research on them and found out that these drones were created right here."

The rest of the team crowded around the recruit as they had skeptical looks on their faces.

Wheeljack: "Darkmount? Is that what they're calling this place? How poetic."

Arcee: "You mean this place is a factory?"

The former teen nodded and continued.

Jack/Rodimus: "Of sorts. They're building an army from the scrap metal of Earth's military vehicles that surround the fortress, ultimately using the human's own resources to their advantage."

Smokescreen: "They're building an army huh? How big are we talking about?"

Jack turned to the Elite Guard member and told him truthfully.

Jack/Rodimus: "Big. Enough to take over an entire planet. Since Megatron couldn't take over Cybertron, he plans to use Earth as a replacement. Which of course led to using the Omega Lock to build a fortress on this planet."

Arcee listened to that and could tell that it was bad.

Arcee: "Great, now we're dealing with an army about to take over this world. This will make protecting humanity a whole lot more complicated."

Jack nodded and continued with what else they have discovered.

Jack/Rodimus: "There's more to it then you think, Arcee. During our little adventure we stumbled upon something unexpected. Look at the console and see what is different."

The femme was curious as to what he meant and checked the console to see the humans the recruits have been taking care of. They could see Sari and Sam standing there, relieved that the team arrived. But then, she and the others spotted Vince next to them and were quite surprised that he, of all people, was with them. The two-wheeler looked up to the young mech and asked about the bully.

Arcee: "What is he doing here?"

Jack sighed and began explaining to her about him.

Jack/Rodimus: "We got into a sort of a mess and had to take to the sewers to reach the Decepticon fortress. That's when we encountered some human survivors underground. There is a fallout bunker underneath Jasper loaded with military and civilians and they are trapped in this war zone. They are in need of some help and a way out of Jasper."

Arcee looked at Vince again and was still a little silent. Getting back to the bully, she turned her partner away and reworked her words in a whisper.

Arcee: "That's not what I meant. What's Vince doing with you guys? I thought he was a bully to you."

Jack remained quiet and didn't know how to say this. Sure he was the bully, but he had changed after the invasion. So she told her quietly why he was there.

Jack/Rodimus: "I know he was the bully in high school Arcee, and I know how he treated me and the others. But look at him; he has changed ever since the Cons attacked Jasper. He lost his entire family because of them and now he wants some redemption. I should know. I lost my uncle in the hands of a dangerous man. And besides, he doesn't know who we really are yet. And if he did find out about it, then he would have some questions about us. Just as long as we all keep our mouths shut, he won't know the truth."

Arcee listened to him and understood the depth of his circumstance. With Vince with them, they cannot reveal the recruit's identity to him. So she nodded in agreement and she and her team decided to keep their secret on the DL. As that conversation went on, Vince watched this conversation and was a little bewildered by what they were doing. After waiting, he decided to call them out on it.

Vince: "Hey! What are you two talking about?"

Both partners turned to Vince who looked a little impatient. Arcee decided to tell him that it was nothing – in her own stern way.

Arcee: "It's nothing of your concern, Vince is it? But I just want to ask you one thing. How many survivors are in that fallout shelter with you."

Vince looked to the femme and could tell that she meant business. Still, the way she looked was very familiar to him, yet can't quite put his finger on it. Still, he ignored it and answered her question.

Vince: "Well the remaining population was around 2,000 when the evacuation was half finished. Now it's just around a 1,000. We are all hiding underneath the town, but it will be a matter of time before the Cons find them."

Arcee nodded and turned to the Rodimus for a recap.

Arcee: "So, not only do we have to rescue Optimus, but also the remaining survivors of Jasper. We've certainly have our servos full."

Rodimus nodded and told her that he's got it covered.

Jack/Rodimus: "I've already informed Lasky that we have a ground bridge to get them out of the town and away from the Decepticons. All we had to do was contact the base and let you guys in on this little problem."

Arcee remained quiet, as she knew they were all in a serious pickle. There are still humans surviving this war in their town and they are in need of some serious assist. So she came to a conclusion and decided to help out in whatever way she could.

Arcee: "Fine… We'll contact Sumdac and let him know of this news. I'm sure Fowler should know about this too, being that there are military personnel within the group of survivors."

Just as they were talking, Sparkplug was hiding behind Sari's legs the whole time, feeling a little intimidated by the many Autobots in front of it. And although it wanted to eat any one of them, it couldn't because it was loyal to its master and didn't want to upset her. Slowly it peeked out to see them and they didn't notice it at first. But then Bulkhead looked down to the humans for a brief second and noticed something behind Sari. Peeking back down again, he saw a silver creature with huge blue optics blinking at him. Realizing what it was, he did the most logical thing imaginable. He screamed like a girl. The others soon heard that and turned to him backing up and arming his blasters to it, scared out of his wits end.

Smokescreen: "Whoa, whoa! What's gotten into you Bulky?"

The Wrecker pointed his blaster to the creature and warned them in a freaked out look.

Bulkhead: "Scraplet! SCRAPLET!"

The group looked to the little thing and reacted by arming their blasters at the creature. The Scraplet cowered behind Sari's legs and didn't want to fight them, being that they must be friends of its master. The three recruits noticed this too and realized that they were making a mistake. So the three went in front of them and told them to stop.

Jack/Rodimus: "Wait! Don't shoot!"

Arcee looked to him for a second while aiming her blaster on the vermin and asked.

Arcee: "Ten seconds in explaining partner. Start talking."

Jack/Rodimus: "Because that Scraplet is harmless."

There was a bit of an eerie silence within the group as Smokescreen spoke up.

Smokescreen: "Yeah, right… And we're immune to the Cybonic Plague."

Raf then stepped in and explained.

Raf/Firewall: "No, it's the truth. That Scraplet is friendly. Sari used her key to make it loyal to her. Made it her pet."

The group looked at their recruits and had some skeptical looks. The femme then looked to Sari and asked her about that.

Arcee: "Well Sari, is what they say true?"

The young teen looked to her and dragged her foot around explaining what happened.

Sari: "Well, while we were in the sewer trying to search for this Darkmount place, we've sort of encountered some unexpected company. Company involving Scraplets."

The femme raised an optic ridge and was in for quite a surprise.

Arcee: "You're kidding right? An army of Scraplets? Thought they froze to death in the Arctic. How did they manage to make more of those cretins?"

Miko/Kaosu: "The same way they made more of those newly equipped drones. There was a huge swarm of them underneath the sewers. Who knows how many more of them are around town."

Ratchet groaned to himself and never thought that was possible.

Ratchet: "An army of Scraplets. Is there anything that these wretched Cons won't think of?"

Sari sighed and continued with her story.

Sari: "Anyways… We've managed to make an escape and prevented them from following us, but one managed to slip by and tried to attack us. We managed to hold them off and tried to shoot it down. However, I thought I could use my key to shut it down completely. But when I was able to do that, it did the exact opposite and… Well… You see the end results."

Arcee looked back and forth between the girl and the metal creature and was quite surprised that the little girl could control the Scraplet. So she looked to her and asked a simple question.

Arcee: "This Scraplet, is it loyal to you?"

Sari starred at the two-wheeler with the serious glare and nodded.

Sari: "Well duh… It's listened to me ever since I put that key in its system. In fact, it's been very helpful to us on some occasions. You can imagine a pet this little can do some serious damage."

The femme looked down to Sparkplug and never thought Sari could control it one bit. Finding that it can be controlled, she nodded and sighed in protest.

Arcee: "Fine. You'll keep that thing. But make sure it doesn't get anywhere near us."

Sari gave a quick nod and told her she can do that.

Sari: "No problemo."

The others looked at each other and gave off the hibbie-jibbies as they didn't want to get close to that Scraplet. Still, they had a mission to get to as Ratchet stepped in and wanted to find their leader.

Ratchet: "Regardless of all this news, we still have to get Optimus out of this place. That's our number one priority here. So, where do we start?"

The moment the medic said that, the hacker approached the console and used the cables on his arms and back to connect to the system. In an instant, the screen showed the map of Darkmount as Firewall made an explanation.

Raf/Firewall: "This is the map of Darkmount I downloaded on one of the directories in this place. It has 30 full and wide floors at the bottom and a throne room at the top floor where Megatron resides. The place is pretty big, I know, but they didn't think of where they would place a Prime. From this map, there seems to be a lower level underneath the tower. My guess, it must be their prison."

Typing the digital keys, he did a zoom in on the floor beneath the fortress and it showed a wide floor with many cells. The team looked on and could tell that it was a good place to start.

Arcee: "A prison floor? How homely. Do you know where Optimus is being kept?"

Raf typed away feverishly to locate their leader. But after a few tries, it proved impossible as he sighed in despair.

Raf/Firewall: "That's the problem. It would seem that they blurred out where Optimus was being held captive. The only Cons who know where he's being kept are Megatron, Starscream, and a few assigned guards."

Team Prime heard that and groaned in agony.

Bulkhead: "Terrific… The Earth equivalent of a needle in a haystack. This rescue is already becoming complicated."

But the Elite Guard member stepped in and asked something else.

Smokescreen: "Maybe it's not a major failure. What about the Iacon relics we had to surrender on Cybertron? Do you know where they are?"

Firewall looked through the map to locate the relics and where they are being kept. After searching, he found where the relics were located and let the Autobots know.

Raf/Firewall: "Let's see… It says here there's a trophy chamber on the twentieth floor. It's a bit of a long stretch, but that ought to be where the relics are located, given that there is no other place they might put them."

He then zoomed in on the map and showed the team the location of the trophy room, which was in the left side of the tower on the twentieth floor. Some nodded and understood where the group might find the relics. With that said, Arcee decided it was time to start the mission and turned to the team to give them their orders.

Arcee: "All right team, we made it through. Now we need to free Optimus and get out of this fortress. We'll split up into two teams. Ratchet, Altra, Bumblebee, and I will head to the underground prison to find and rescue Optimus. Smokescreen, you take Bulkhead and Wheeljack and retrieve the Iacon relics. We might need some extra firepower after what we've heard. Now all we need is a rendezvous point."

Firewall looked to her and told here where they should go.

Raf/Firewall: "There is a courtyard at the entrance of Darkmount. We saw it before when we were trying to get to the comm. station. There could be some heavy heat down there, so you better clear the way before you can start escaping."

He typed a few keys on the panel, and showed the others the courtyard so the team will know where they need to be. The femme nodded and turned to the team about what he said.

Arcee: "Good thinking Firewall. Once we retrieve Optimus and the relics, we'll meet up at the courtyard. From there, we will have the professor bridge us out the Decepticon fortress. Have your EDs and Scramblers on, we can't let Soundwave or any other Con know that we're here."

The team nodded and was about ready to leave. Yet Rodimus and the other recruits wondered what to do next.

Jack/Rodimus: "Um, Arcee? What about us? What are we going to do?"

Cee turned to Jack and the others and told them what they should do.

Arcee: "You three stay here with the humans. We need to make sure that Soundwave doesn't know your presence here. Plus we need someone to communicate to the base and let Sumdac know that we need a bridge back."

Miko heard that and couldn't believe what she heard.

Miko/Kaosu: "What?! You guys are not letting us join you? We want in on the thrills!"

Arcee looked at the recruits and humans to see the dings, scratches, and tattered clothes. Seeing what they've been through, the two-wheeler smirked and retorted back on Kaosu's complaint.

Arcee: "Really? Cause by the looks of it, I think you guys had enough fun for one day. Just stay in this room and make the Decepticons think that this area is secured. Also have the professor contact Agent Fowler and let him know that you've found humans underneath the town. If there are really survivors, they need a way out. Once we retrieve Optimus and the relics and have left the fortress, have Sumdac bridge you back. As long as you're in this room, you'll be safe."

The recruits and humans listened in and although the Wrecking cadet crossed her arms and pouted, Rodimus understood that it was Team Prime's time to take action. So he nodded and responded back.

Jack/Rodimus: "Understood Arcee. We'll lay low until it's time to leave."

Arcee smiled and knew that they would remain in the station until it was time to go. Just then, Sari stepped in and removed the key from her neck, letting them know what to do.

Sari: "Wait, you might need this key to help Optimus. Being that he's been held captive for so long, he's going to need something to heal him from his injuries."

To that, she wound her arm back and threw it to the team. The closest bot to her was Bumblebee as he was able to grab it with his servo. Looking at the key, he looked to Sari and nodded in understanding. But when he looked to Vince, he had a deep glare and warned him about something.

Bumblebee: (A fair warning Vince. If any of my friends get hurt, I'll have Knockout take you and I won't rescue you.)

Vince looked to him in a confused gesture and wondered what he was talking about. Turning to the hacker, he asked about the scouts beeps and whirls.

Vince: "Um… What did he say to me?"

The hacker turned to him and decided to not let him know on the translation.

Raf/Firewall: "Trust me, you don't want to know."

Turning back to the team, Arcee told the others to begin the search.

Arcee: "We've wasted far too much time as it is, team. We've got a mission to accomplish and we must do it now. It's time to save a Prime. Move!"

The group nodded as they headed to the exit. Arcee was right behind them and was about to leave. But as she was leaving, Jack had to do something that was important and had to tell her now while he had a chance. So heading to her, he told her to stop.

Jack/Rodimus: "Arcee, wait! Can I speak to you about something?"

The group stopped, wondering what the former teen wanted. The femme turned to him and told him to make it quick.

Arcee: "Five minutes partner, don't waste it."

Jack nodded and opened his compartment and got something out.

Jack/Rodimus: "Well since you're finally here, I thought I would give this to you since it's something that is important. Here."

He took this something out of his compartment and opened his fist to reveal a piece of Cliffjumper's horn. Arcee's optics grew wide and she was surprised that her last partner's horn was right in front of her.

Arcee: "Cliff's horn… Where did you…"

Jack looked to her and smiled.

Jack/Rodimus: "Find it? It was discovered within the wreckage of Omega One. In fact, it was when we were a little lost, underground in the sewer system. If it hadn't been for that, well, we would've been lost for sure. Since this is important to you, I think maybe it's wise that you keep it, to remember your friend."

Arcee looked at the piece of her late partner and felt spark wrenched, as she'd assumed that it perished along with everything else in the old base. But now that she saw it in good enough condition, she knew that she will never lose it ever again. Taking the horn from Rodimus's servo she held on to it tightly, smiling as she joked about this unexpected turn of event.

Arcee: "Even after death, Cliff helps any way he can. Thank you Rodimus, I'll be sure I will keep this close to my spark."

To that, she opened her compartment over her chest plate and placed that piece of her memory into it. But as she placed that object in self-keeping, a part of her wanted to do something she hadn't done in a long time. Ever since the talk with June so many hours ago, her spark was telling her to do this, to admit her feelings to him. She made that promise to herself and she intended to keep it. Altra noticed this as she waited to see what would happen next, as did the others. After being a bit quiet for some time, the two-wheeler took a deep breath and decided to do this now.

Arcee: "Rodimus, there's something I want to speak to you about. Something very… important."

The young mech looked to her and was a little confused as to what she wanted. But he shrugged it off and decided to listen.

Jack/Rodimus: "Sure thing, Cee. What is it do you want?"

The blue femme looked at him and felt a little nervous, but kept her composure and said it straight away.

Arcee: "Well, it's about us. I know that we've been best friends and partners for the past few months and been through good and bad together. But then after your little 'incident', things have changed and our relationship between each other is a whole lot different than before. It's seems like we have this strong connections between us. Almost feels as if we are more than just friends, or partners. What I'm trying to say is, I think maybe we could push our relationship-"

Jack lifted his servo up and stopped her from there.

Jack/Rodimus: "Don't say it Arcee, I understand."

The two-wheeler blinked and was a little perplexed by it.

Arcee: "You do?"

The former teen nodded and continued.

Jack/Rodimus: "Indeed. I understand that you and I have something important to share. That we should let it out while we still have a chance. To be honest, the moment I met you I thought you were just some regular motorcycle. But as the months passed this relationship escalated and only recently did it connect. And now everything's changed, and there is something I want to say. Arcee… I… I… Oh screw it."

Then without warning, Jack got close to the femme's face and started to kiss lightly on the lips. That caught Arcee by surprise as she didn't expect Jack to do that to her so quickly. The others also watched on and had mouths agape a little bit. In a matter of moments, Rodimus parted lips from her and immediately realized what he did.

Jack/Rodimus: "I'm sorry! I didn't really mean that! I was caught up at the moment. Scrap, I'm so stupid!"

He turned away and thought what happened would end their relationship completely. But before he could leave her, Arcee called up from behind.

Arcee: "Hey partner?"

The young mech heard that and turned around to see what she wanted. But almost immediately, Arcee grabbed and kissed him deeply on the tips with her pedes pushing her up to get the height advantage. Jack's optics were wide as saucers as he didn't see this coming one bit. But then he relaxed a little and returned the kiss in full acceptance. The team watched on in shock, never thinking that their aggressive and down to Earth two-wheeler would have a soft spot. But Altra looked on and could tell that they have now officially taken the first step in their relationship. As soon as it started, it stopped as they both let go of their kisses, looking at each other with loving optics.

Jack/Rodimus: "So… Does that mean…"

The femme smirked passionately as she traced her digit around his chest plate.

Arcee: "Let's wait until we save Optimus, then I'll give you my answer. Clear partner?"

He nodded and understood what she meant.

Jack/Rodimus: "Crystal, partner."

To that end, she smiled warmly gave him a wink before getting serious and turning to the others watching the whole love fest.

Arcee: "What are you all gawking at? Are you forgetting why we're here? Optimus needs us! Move out!"

Quickly, they all shook off that thought and returned to the task at hand as they left the room while Arcee was about to head to the doors. Before that though, she turned back to promised Jack something.

Arcee: "Promise me you won't cause any more trouble while we're away."

Rodimus nodded and told her the truth.

Jack/Rodimus: "I'll try, but I won't guarantee any chances."

To that, she nodded and headed out the comm. facility with the doors closing behind her. As soon as they were gone, the former teen turned to see the two other recruits and the humans looking on in a state of shock. Kaosu though, was only quiet for seconds before she placed her servo over her mouth and started snickering. Rodimus didn't like that and asked her what her problem was.

Jack/Rodimus: "What? What are you laughing about?"

The Wrecking cadet looked to him and decided to make a joke about it.

Miko/Kaosu: "Oh, nothing… Just thinking about the many car washes you two can visit after this. Or perhaps a date at a drive in movie theater. Oh I'm going to get so much mileage out of this!"

The recruit rolled his optics around and sighed to himself, knowing that this is going to be a long day. But what he and the others didn't know was that something bad was about to happen.

---

Back in Jasper, underneath the town, a group of Airadicons, Combaticons, and Insecticons were scouting the sewer systems looking for the three Neutrals that had been causing the Cons some problems. But so far, all they could find was nothing but empty tunnels and disgusting sewer water. One of the Airadicons was getting annoyed as he could feel water in his leggings.

Airadicon 10: "Man, this blows. Here we are wasting our precious time searching for a few non-insignificant Cybertronians in the sewers and all we find are these organic rats. I swear, a few more breems and my pedes will be rusting like crazy."

The second Airadicon turned to him and told him to shut.

Airadicon 11: "Primus, will you give that a rest already. Megatron ordered us to search these tunnels for those non-faction Neutrals. So if we're going to look for them, we have to search these tunnels until we can confirm that they're not around. Got me?"

The first one sighed to himself and decided to follow his advice.

Airadicon 10: "Fine… Whatever you say… I swear what the humans put in these waters disgust me."

The group continued to walk as they kept up with the search. But as they were walking, they made an immediate stop and noticed some kind of huge metal door blocking their way. What they found was the entrance to the underground bunker the remaining humans were living in. The first Airadicon saw this and pointed to the door.

Airadicon 10: "Hey, what is that?"

The other one looked at it too and was as curious about it as his friend.

Airadicon 11: "Don't know… But it looks like something important. Contact Darkmount. Let them know what we found."

---

That finishes that chapter. I got to say, this was quite a handful I got here. At least I was lucky to get all this stuff down in one day. Now I know that the Arcee/Jack love story was a little cheesy, but hey, I had to find a way to take their relationship to the next level. I'm hoping that FictionFan will look into that the tries to re-edit that bit. But whatever, at least it's the best I got. Now on the next chapter, the Cons discovered the remaining humans underneath the town. Is it already too late to save them? Let's see what happens next time. Please Review.