Alright! Off on holiday for a week so I really can't stall on posting this any longer. Hope you all enjoy this most recent chapter! And have a good day okay?

Cosmopolitan top floor

"Mikaela where are you."

The moment she'd picked up her mobile she knew she'd be in for it from her dad, his worried voice only proved it.

"Over at a friends house. Like I told you."

"Yeah well I called all your friends and none of them said you were there."

It took her a moment to realise where he must've gotten those numbers from. "You used my old address book?"

"Well what else could I have used? It's ten, you said you'd be back by nine."

Right, she had said that, hadn't she? Well she wasn't exactly expecting to collapse, wake up then promptly be moved to one of the comfiest sofas she's ever slept on, which was saying something unfortunately.

"I know daddy, but I ended up not feeling good last night and I ended up sleeping in to recover, my friends are insisting I stay cause they live way closer to the nearest doctor than we do."

Immediately her fathers worry shifted gear. "You're sick? Honey you should of called! I would of come pick you up right away!"

"No it's fine daddy, Wren and Aria are gonna fly be back in a few hours."

She heard someone freeze halfway through saying something behind her, looking back to the rest of the room she spotted Aria gritting her teeth in a wince, the human projections of the other aliens looking between the two of them with perplexed expressions.

"Fly you back?! Mikaela where the hell are you?!"

Oh, shit.

"Err… Vegas…"

"VEGAS?! I swear young lady if I find out you were gambling I'll…"

Before she could hear the rest the phone was snatched away by a frowning Wren.

"Sir, Mikaela didn't do anything illegal, we invited her to watch a show with us at the Cosmopolitan, she ended up having a nasty reaction so some lobster so we insisted she stay here and recover longer than her predetermined stay. Do not fret, the chef responsible has been suitably warned after the mistake and she has been compensated." At that Wren pulled a literal wad of money out from somewhere on her body and put it in place of where Mikaela's phone had been not moments prior.

She heard her dad reply but didn't hear what he was saying, looking back towards the others she saw Bumblebee and Jazz exchange an odd look, but the other three were back to being too busy discussing something with Aria and Kia to pay them any mind.

Where had Wren come from anyway? Last she knew the woman had been trying to get some extra sleep in. And why was she really giving her all of this money? Pulling the wad down she had the startling realisation that they weren't merely tens, but hundreds, and far more than she honestly thought she'd ever see in her life.

"I am Wren Orichiono, we befriended Mikaela when we were on a business trip in Tranquility. Yes we, I have a sister, Aria. Yes we invited her to the cosmopolitan, because we own it. Understand sir that Mikaela is in the safest of hands possible here, she will be home within the next three hours, if that is what she wants, we have a helicopter ready to go on the roof. Yes we'll give a more complete explanation of how your daughter managed to befriend us and why we decided to invite her over at a later day. Oh, and your welcome for the bail."

Wait… what?!

Mikaela felt her jaw drop as Wren glanced at her with a raised eyebrow and smirk as if to say 'what? You didn't put two and two together?' Before the woman promptly hung up and handed the cellular device back.

Wren seemed to pause then, thinking of something as she regarded Mikaela. "A word of advice, invest in Touch screens, they're far superior to flip phones, and if you invest enough, in a few short years, you'll be living larger than you ever thought possible. Apple and Samsung will be the biggest profit draws, but watch out for when the Samsung phones start smoking, sell all your shares there before the value drops"

She went to sit down on the sofa Bumblebee had slept on the night before, not really sure what to say back to the black themed woman who made her own way over to the kitchen, peering into one of the fridges and pulling out what looked like a premade fruit salad with whipped cream on top.

Looking back down at the wad of cash in her hand she gulped, was this the 'compensation'? An added touch to make sure the white lies were believed?

Had they really been the ones to bail her dad?

It made sense, if she hadn't agreed off the bat to get the glasses, they could of dangled that over her head.

Would they of done that though?

A tap on her shoulder jolted her from those thoughts and caused her gaze to shift from the wad of cash and up to the one in front of her.

Bumblebee, her 'guardian' as she had overheard earlier, was in a half kneel, warm smile mixed with a look of concern on his features.

Pulling out the very same notepad she'd given him they night before, he scribbled out something on a page with a pen he pulled from the same pocket the notepad came from.

'You ok?'

She nodded. "Yeah… just…" She looked at the wad of cash again. "So much has happened so quickly."

He scribbled something else down.

'You wanna talk about it? Aria said there's a balcony on the floor below with a really good view.'

The idea of getting some fresh air certainly sounded, or really looked like a good idea.

After a moment of contemplation and a glance at all the 'adults' talking, she decided there was nothing to lose.

Also it was starting to get really weird being surrounded by people who looked human, but that she knew for certain were all aliens. Or trans-dimensional beings, but that was a whole thing in and of its own.

"Yeah… that sounds like a good idea."

He responded with a smile and an offering off his hand.

Being courteous she decided to take it and let him help her up.

They had to walk passed Wren to get to the elevator, the woman having m0ved to lean against one of the corridor walls, seemingly chewing the spoon in her mouth as she regarded something on a device she'd pulled out of her pocket with the hand not currently holding the already half eaten bowl of fruit and cream.

Was that a touch screen? She'd ask later if she could.

After a brief glance at them from behind their heavily tinted sunglasses, Wren went back to reading whatever she had been looking at, as if giving them permission to go.

Needing no other encouragement they entered the lift and Bumblebee pressed the button for the floor below.

Stepping out they found themselves in a corridor, but unlike the floor above, the corridor seemed to span the entire length of the floor, with doors lining each side, reminding Mikaela of the fact they were in fact, still in one of the most luxurious hotels in the US.

At the end of the corridor though, was a set of double doors leading out to the apparent balcony.

A tug on her hand drew her gaze to Bumblebee, leading her to realise she'd never actually let go of the hand he'd offered.

Apparently he didn't mind, more focused on gesturing with his head to the glass double doors as if to say 'We going?'.

Maybe holding hands wasn't a couple dominated gesture of his species.

They were aliens, she had to remind herself, no matter how realistic these projections looked and felt.

She nodded despite her internal musings. "Yeah, sure, let's go."

The corridor wasn't really long, and it branched off a few times leading to more door filled corridors, but they kept going straight, quickly passing through the glass doors and out onto the fenced balcony and into the warm breeze that lingered high above the ground.

Finally pulling her hand out of his, she walked ahead as he focused on the surrounding view.

After just a peek at the ground she pulled her gaze back up, focusing on the horizon and not the ridiculously far drop she should of expected had she ever really been a building over four stories tall before.

Letting off a sigh she pushed herself back on her arms so that she could rest her forehead on the metal railing, already it was getting warmed by the sun, but that's just what happens this time of year.

She felt him tap her shoulder again, and she lifted her gaze to regard him, finding he'd already scribbled something else down the edges of the pages ruffling in the wind.

'It's a lot, isn't it? Us being aliens?'

She laughed under her breath at that.

"Oh yeah… not three days ago I was watching Alien again with dad… and we joked about how terrifying it would be to meet an alien. Though to be honest, the aliens in that film were a hella lot more scary looking."

He nodded at that, writing again on the notepad after flipping to a new page.

'Good to know. What about me?'

"You? Well…" What should she say? The only time she's seen what he really looks like, it was for at most a few seconds on that video the twins sent her, and given how shaky the image had been, she'd not gotten much… could she even tell them what the twins had told her? What Kia had told her? That they were all fictional characters as far as these strange women were concerned? No… no they already had enough to deal with, existential crisis wasn't something she wanted to add to anyone's plate, no matter how recently they met. So, to answer him, she just said the first thing that came to mind. "You're cute."

Probably not the best thing to say to an alien you'd only just met the day before, but it seems to work in making him both flattered, and a bit hurt in regards to his pride, which he quickly tries to fix by puffing out his chest like a Turkey.

Then his mouth was opening and closing, as if he was trying to speak.

But nothing came out and his features fell.

"You… you really can't speak can you?"

He shook his head, pulling down the zipper of the yellow with black striped leather jacket that had been zipped up to his chin.

The projected flesh which was revealed made her stomach roil in discomfort.

It was an old but gruesome wound, like a wild animal had sunk its teeth in and pulled.

There was silence between them for a moment before he pulled at his collar, folding it down, apparently set on not hiding the injury now that she knew it was there.

"Did… does it still hurt."

He responded with a shake of his hand, as if to say 'so so'.

She bit her lower lip before speaking again. "Can I ask what happened?"

He nodded, moving to rest his own crossed elbows on the railing, before uncrossing them and pulling the notepad and pen back out of where he'd earlier tucked them into his pocket.

'Megatron' Was the first word he scribbled down.

"Megatron? What's that?"

He gave her a surprised look.

'You don't know?'

"No… honestly… all I know is you're aliens… the harpies used to be humans… and that I'm honestly way out of my league even being in the same building as you." She replied, ducking her head, what was she even good for now? They'd needed her to act as bait, that was done, the Autobots were here… she could hear the chopper now that she thought about it, the low thum of an idling engine coming from above proving Wren's earlier statement.

He tapped her shoulder to draw her attention back to the page. 'Don't cut yourself short. Everyone is special in their own way, what do you love to do?'

She smiled at that, albeit it was a bit on the forced and saddened side. "I… fix cars… my daddy taught me how… before he got thrown in jail… for stealing cars… I still tinker a lot… Trent refused to let me have a look at his beef wagon though, said it was perfectly fine and that he didn't want a 'girl' looking at his engine… for fucks sake anyone with a set of ears could tell the drive shaft was more than one leg in the junkyard, same with the carburetor…" She looked up to gauge his expression, but found that he was smiling, and scribbling something new down.

Why did she even care what he thought? He probably wasn't going to be on Earth long… once they had what they needed, they'd be gone… and she'd live her whole life knowing a little known secret about the universe… she wouldn't tell anyone, they'd call her mad.

So… why was she so set on knowing what he thought?

'I think that's really cool! Not the sire being arrested bit… but if you have a talent, you should be respected for it! … Who's 'Trent'?' The look he gave her was one of perplexed confusion, as if emphasising the last point in particular with his expression.

She couldn't help the quiet, breathy chuckle it brought from her, funnily enough, even now she had no regret for dumping Trent, if anything, she felt… oddly liberated, free to do what she wanted.

"He was my Boyfriend, emphasis on was… I think you saw him, at the lake?" She knew he understood when he started scribbling again, showing her after a few quick moments.

'You mean the hairless Orangutan? I thought he'd escaped from a nearby lab and was harassing you. Would of transformed and rushed to your aid if you hadn't taken care of him yourself probably.'

Hairless Orangutan? Okay, that got a laugh out of her, nearly a downright cackle.

She missed the bright smile on his features at seeing her previous solemn and thought filled expression being replaced by amusement he caused, he never got to do this anymore, just act his age and try to have fun with someone, even if he'd only met this human last night, he liked her, she was fun, and she didn't distance herself when she found out about his injury… wait, he was supposed to be telling her about it, she did ask, and the conversation had gone a bit off track.

'Back to the story of my war wound please?'

"Yeah, ha… kay… write away Bee."

'Will do'

So, he did, he ended up actually telling her basically everything, simplified, but it still ate up the rest of the pad, leaving him with only random spots back through the notepad to try to squeeze more conversation out, he honestly didn't want this to end yet.

Eventually though, her hand moved to rest over the one bearing the pen. "Alright, I think the notepads dead, I have another in my rucksack if you want?"

Oh that was more than welcome, he nodded his head rapidly in agreement.

She led the way back inside, leaving him to take one last look at the world beyond.

Earth really was a nice place, he was glad he got to make a new friend on it.

Hopefully he got to stay as her guardian.

He wasn't sure he was ready to say goodbye to this one like all the others he'd met during his long time on this planet trying to find the Cube.

When they returned to the level above, the atmosphere was completely different, and it sent a shiver down his holoforms pseudo spine at the chilled looks passing between the 'Harpies' as Mikaela told him they called themselves, given their avian forms, he felt it fit them well, but that was not what held his focus now.

It was Ira, who had apparently finally emerged during their time away, who spoke, but alas, he'd never managed to grasp the language she spoke then.

"Они убили его."

That was when he noticed someone else had joined them, and had placed a laptop on the island in the kitchen for the others to see, it took him a moment to realise that it was the man who'd taken Mikaela from the lake in the white SUV, he wasn't wearing the suit anymore, but a checkered navy and pale green shirt, with hawaiian shorts, and no shoes?

The man spoke then. "It apparently happened in the early hours of this morning… they're all dead."

Okay… that wasn't a good thing to say.

The twins were exchanging concerned looks between each other, Kia's expression was a stony neutral scowl.

Ira? Well, she looked livid.

"Yah mean ah hung under Airforce 1, fah fuckin' nothin'?! Tha' kid still get's killed?! His whole family too?! God damnit! I didn' let them ge' one byte ah information an' they still fin' him?!"

"Ira." The singular word from Wren stops the younger redhead dead. "That is not the only thing we should be concerned about here. Take a look, in the corner… see those gouges on the only still standing wall?!" Wren was pointing at something on the screen now with one sharp black nail.

Ira looked again, as did the rest of them.

It seemed to dawn on the red head then what the twin was implying.

"Oh fah fuckin' sake! There's ah fourth Harpy runnin' abou'?!"

"One who knew that Sam was likely the owner of the glasses, and lead the cons to him."

That was when Mikaela finally spoke up. "Sam? Like that dorky kid I got the glasses from?"

Aria was the one who looked her right in the eyes and nodded. Then, she spoke. "He, his mother, and father were all found murdered in the rubble of their home this morning, as is a good chunk of their neighbours, who it would seem, went to see what had happened… death toll is currently at twenty six… Either blasted to pieces by a high powered ordanace, or simply crushed into the pavement until their skulls were smashed like eggs."

He wasn't even looking at her and he knew she'd locked up, going wide eyed, and dropped jawed, the same expression currently on his own features, with a healthy dose of disgust rolling in his tanks.

He'd been the boys guardian not two days ago.

Wren looked to Mikaela with an empathetic look. "I think… it would be better if you stayed here Mikaela, at least until after the Allspark has been obtained and these 'Decepticons' seen too, if the cons… and what we assume is another Harpy… knew his location without the access to the Potus mainframe… then you returning to Tranquility could be like putting a target on your back… especially given that the boy likely told them exactly who he gave the glasses to before they killed him."

The Autobots all turned to regard the two of them, and he decided it was probably best to lead her forwards into the group, so that they could have a look too at what the man, Winston he thinks, had brought to the others attention whilst they were gone.

Picking up on this, Kia reached out and spun the laptop around so as to give them a better look.

It was a news article, with the image at the top of the shambles of what he knew had been a really nice place to live.

Like they said, the only wall standing left of the building, bore four large gouges, three above, one below, with the center of the gouges being completely torn out within the grip of whatever had damaged the wall.

He glanced again at his charge, her eyes were blown wide in horror, a hand clasped over her mouth.

Already she was seeing the repercussions of them coming to Earth along with the Decepticons.

He was honestly surprised to see her gaze had hardened though, and her other hand clenched into fists.

When she spoke, it was with a sudden conviction. "Whatever it takes, I want to help. I want to stay and fight."

There was a long, heavy pause as Harpy's and Autobots alike regarded her, he himself regarded her with a look of shock with a helping of pride.

It was broken by a sharp clap, jolting all attention to a beaming Aria. "Brilliant! Wren will be your trainer, you start next week."

Kia huffed. "And how come I ca…. GAH!" Before she had even finished, Wren was behind her, and with one too quick to catch movement, she had Kia's face pressed against the island, arms trapped between the two.

"That's why." Wren purred before letting the other Harpy go, who in turn pushed herself up like nothing had happened, the two exchanged a smirk as Kia brushed off non existent dust from the cream pleated shirt she wore.

"Fair enough, fair enough. That okay with you chica? Wren being you're trainer?"

He looked again to his charge, and found she looked a little surprised, before she shrugged and smiled. "Sounds good to me."

The twins seemed to exchange a look before Aria responded. "Well then, looks like we have a few things to do. Wren?"

"I have a few calls to make, I'll be back to continue this discussion in a while, thank you for bringing this to our attention Winston, Kia, I suggest you get your teams on high alert, Ira, go check in on the surveillance teams, if there's another Harpy roaming America, we can't run the risk of being caught off guard."

Ira gave Wren a mock salute. "Righ' away boss…" before pushing off the table and heading towards him and his charge.

Both he and Mikaela stepped aside to let the red head through, and Bumblebee wouldn't deny he shuddered slightly when her nails dragged ever so lightly across his holoforms jacket. Reminding him of how dangerous this one in particular was.

Which made him question, if Ira could knock a Cybertronian into stasis with just a touch… what could the others do?

He doubted it was anything pleasant, but knew they'd likely find out eventually.

He turned back to regard his comrades, Optimus' expression was as stone faced as ever, Ratchet was sending Wren the 'medic look', Jazz was sitting on the Sofa trying to get the TV to work without having to ask anyone how to do that, and Ironhide was still looking intently at the news website, namely the image of what was left of the Witwicky residence.

He honestly felt terrible, he hadn't been there to protect them, they were completely innocent… the terror they must of experienced as they were taken from the plain of existence… No one deserved it… but so many had...

There was no silver lining here, and the somber mood that had fallen was suffocating.

He reached out and grabbed Mikaela's hand again, and pulled her back towards the elevator, he had to get her out of this environment, he left his old charge, unknowingly leaving the boy to the wrath of the Decepticons, blinded by the need to obtain the glasses which were being used to lure his team away.

He couldn't allow that to happen again, he had to make up for the sudden weight of guilt that had so suddenly buried itself in his spark.

Mikaela didn't resist his pull towards the elevator that Ira herself had just disappeared through, her own expression a mix of haunted and uncertainty.

As they waited for the lift, he looked back to the kitchen, and saw something odd.

It was Aria, she'd turned away from the screen, hand clasped over her mouth so tight that her sharp nails dug into her pale skin, as if she was trying not to be sick.

But her eyes portrayed something else, a deep and calculative thought, as if she was meticulously going through herself every second of the Witwicky murder.

Something about that look didn't sit right with him.

But the elevator was now open before them, and he was stepping in.

It was only as the doors began to close that he saw Aria change pose, as she turned to face Kia.

He only heard the first word she said before the doors closed in front of him.

"Fernando..."

Hoover Dam

They were sitting in a briefing room, under an amount of concrete that the man across from them seemed incredibly proud of for some reason.

Glen was half asleep as well as looked like he was gradually returning from the grave after they hit a spot of turbulence in the helicopter that left the poor teen going green at the gills.

Maggie was looking at the ominous looking marks in the wall, claw marks, he was certain of the fact that those marks, easily a meter long each, were claw marks, too uniform and blade like to be 'structural fatigue' as the man had said, did the guy not realise he'd spent days in the presence of beings who's talons were easily three times thicker alone than whatever left those marks?

Finally there was Flint, who'd had to step out an hour ago when news came from the Pentagon that his mother was spitting fire down the line wanting to know why the fresh hell her son wasn't picking up the phone and that she would skin every man who worked with the Government in a very unpleasant area if she found out her only son was dead.

He'd come back only five minutes ago and explained that he'd forgotten to tell his mother he'd been relocated from one side of America to the other and hadn't terminated his landline, or really had the chance to organise any kind of details about the move, so there was about seven hundred curse filled voicemails waiting for him to get through when he got home.

Considering all of this, his own attention was rapt on the man sitting across from himself and his.. What? Motley crew of misfits? Really there was no better term for them, the son of a General who might of accidentally fucked up the world, an Australian signals analysis, her hacker buddy who knows about Ira, and Flint… Flint was just… Flint.

Motley crew, without a doubt.

Back on topic, the man across from them was currently nose deep in a manilla folder someone else had brought in about two minutes ago before leaving before he could catch anything remarkable in regards to the delivery guys appearance, sans the guy was dark skinned, built like a tank and had horn rimmed glasses perched on his nose.

Deciding that he was sick of just sitting there in complete silence, he spoke. "So, are we actually gonna be getting that brief or what?"

The man looked up from the folder, and then tossed the folder at him.

It settled in front of them, open, revealing an assortment of crime scene like pictures.

Who was he kidding, it was a crime scene.

"Twenty Six American citizens in Tranquility California, not four hours drive from here, with no traffic, all murdered in the early hours of this morning, the homes raised the ground, the only survivor in the vicinity being a Chihuahua with a cast on its leg. The damage is consistent with high power weaponry that we simply as a species do not have possession of, i.e. what you don't see in those pictures, doesn't exist. And you know the kicker kiddo?" The man listed off, before pausing, watching horror sink into all of their faces, save Flint who's expression had more turned to shock, the man was looking directly at him. "They found this, on the remaining wall of the house at the center of the carnage." He pulled away one picture to reveal another.

What he saw made his stomach drop.

He was right… the claw marks in the wall were tiny compared to what had taken out a good chunk of that brick wall.

"Look familiar to you? Rough estimates suggest the culprit was easily twenty foot or more. We need to know more about these 'saviours' of yours. Before they kill anyone else."

Jamerson gulped. "They… they were a bit on the aggressive side, namely Ira and Kia… but the twins kept me safe…"

"They needed you, you were their key into our files, our secrets, of course they'd keep you alive." The man responded.

Jamerson nodded. "Fair enough… but it… I owe them my life… no, I don't owe them anything, they betrayed my trust with that device. I'll tell you everything I could get from my stay with them."

The man smirked. "Perfect, and hopefully soon, we can add them to our… shall we say, collection?"

Maggie seemed to especially perk up at that, as did Flint for that matter Glen was still going through the pictures in the folder and turning ever more sickly looking.

"Collection?" Maggie parroted.

The mans smirk grew wider. "How about I show you? Really break the glass ceiling in your minds in regards to what we're dealing with here."

Before anyone could respond, the man that had been in his father's office, that he only just now realised he'd forgotten the name of, entered.

"Simmons, the survivors of the Qatar attack and subsequent attack are inbound, fifteen minutes till arrival."

The newly named man on the other side of the table, Simmons, regarded the other man with an even larger smirk. "Perfect! Sorry kids! Tour is delayed till the rest of the tour group arrives!"

This man was odd.

This whole situation was odd.

No, this situation was dangerous, and he couldn't risk letting his guard down.

He'd let them in once, and it possibly cost the Government all of its hard kept secrets.

He couldn't let something like that happen again.

He couldn't let his country down.

He doubted he'd be able to survive another look of disappointment from his father.

He didn't see the perplexed look of Maggie, or the still queasy Glen, and he didn't see the intrigued look on Flint's face as he rose from his seat.

"There were survivors? This day really is getting interesting."

And that's it for now! Hope you enjoyed and I hope you have a good day!