Hi! I'm back in business baby! Yeah sorry it's taken so long first exams, then being lazy the first 2 weeks of holidays, then just lazy and having a hard time getting back into the swing. But here we are! Hope everyone had an AMAZING Christmas and New Year!

Enjoy while I count out my money to buy Transformers!

Bold-Transitions.

Normal-normal

Chapter 11:

"Ironhide; report on the decepticon disturbance in Boston, is it anywhere near Mallory or her family?"

"Negative, the stinking cons were on the other side of Boston. Put good use to my new ion blaster. Rachel and sparkling Ritchard are at their barracks, I am about to retrieve Mallory from her school."

"Thank you Ironhide. Optimus Prime out." Ironhide rolled down the smooth road, he checked his internal chronometer, 2:55pm earth time he would be 5 minutes late to pick up Mallory.

When he arrived at the school he spotted the femme from the hospital, Mal's friend Sky. The tall blackette was obviously upset. "What happened? Where is Mallory?" She turned her mismatched eyes to his, they swam with unshed tears. "I d-don't know," she hiccuped, "Ph-Phoebe was saying a policemen came and took her. But I don't know I was gathering my extra credit for art." The energon in his pipes ran cold. Police car. Barricade? But no, he was offlined before the Mission City battle, unless….the coward was simply running from the fight. "Do you know what she could have done?" Ironhide sighed.

"Go home Femme, we will sort this." The femme looked outraged, her eyes were icy and unnerving.

"Excuse me? Go home? I'm not going to sit aside and just wait for her to show up. Mallory is my best friend. I will come with you." Ironhide felt a surge of anger, but managed to suppress it.

"Look here Femme," he growled, "Mallory may be your best friend, but this is too dangerous, and I don't have the authority to allow you on base."

"So then contact that Octopus guy, he's in charge isn't he?" Primus the femme could be demanding; he could practically hear his holoform's denta grinding.

"It's Optimus, and yes he is. But you don't understand-"

"What? What don't I understand?"

"I am not at liberty to inform you. Now shut up and allow me to inform Prime of the situation." Sky looked as if she wanted to argue, but closed her mouth. "Prime, there is a situation. Mallory has been kidnapped by Barricade."

"How did this happen?"

"I believe the Decepticon signatures was planned to get me away from her. The Femme Sky is demanding answers. What do I do?" A deep sigh resonated through the comm link.

"Bring her to base, Ratchet will groundbridge you in."

"Consider it done Prime. Ironhide out."

"Well? Am I permitted to know whatever 'big secret' it is you are hiding?"

"Yes." She faltered, obviously she was expecting to be rebuffed. "Now get in my alt- truck, in my truck."

"Wait- What? I can actually know?"

"Yes, now get. In."

They sped outside of Boston, making their way to a more secluded area where the traffic ceased to a stop. "Where are we going? We're in the middle of nowhere." Grumbled Sky for the hundredth time.

"We are going to a secluded area so the Ratchet can groundbridge us back to base." Stated Ironhide, as calmly as he could; all the while suppressing the urge to dump her fleshy aft out of his alt and introduce her to his cannons.

What the heck-" Ironhide turned down the sensitivity of his audio receptors and pinged Ratchet.

"This had better be good Ironhide; I'm working on Jazz."

"I need a groundbridge if you will, sending you the coordinates." Ironhide failed to hide the smirk at Sky's trembling gasp when the swirling portal appeared mere metres from them.

"H-Hide, what is that."

"That, Fleshy, is what will take us to the base." He drove straight in. when they emerged, the femme appeared nauseated by the portal.

Chuckling, he rolled into the main hangar where humans and bots alike were rushing around; gathering information, and a new fleet of Autobots who had heard Optimus's message had already arrived. Flareup; a member of Elita-1's Valkyrie unit. Jolt; I young, excitable bot who was training as a medibot under Ratchet, and, much to Ironhide's dismay, Sideswipe, who was looking for his twin Sunstreaker. The pair had gotten separated coming through the Plutonian Galaxy when Shockwave had intercepted them on their way to Earth. They had broken free, however Sunstreaker had been recaptured and unheard of spare him telling Sideswipe to continue their journey to Earth.

Sky looked pale, she was staring open-mouthed at Sideswipe who was rolling past. "What? Never seen a bot before?" She could only shake her head before closing her mouth. "Well, then it's lucky the first bot you've seen is a handsome one like me," he grinned cockily. "Name's Sideswipe, your's?"

"Sk-Sky."

"Well, pleased to meet you then Sky, see ya 'round." She raised a hand as he rolled away, sparing a nod at Ironhide.

"W-what is going on?"

"Look femme-"

"Would you stop calling me that? What does it even mean?" Ironhide's electric blue eyes flashed briefly, almost glowing.

"In your terms it means female. Now. Let me explain femme. We are the Autobots. We are what you call alien robots, from the planet Cybertron. We are staying here as our planet is no-longer inhabitable due to the war which ravaged our planet for millennia against the Decepticons. Decepticons are Cybertronians who -unlike us- seek the destruction of your (and other's) world.

We work with your governments and a small, classified military group called NEST. Mallory's father was killed by Decepticons and now we have reason to believe that she has been taken by them also. Understood?" She nodded mutely. "Good. If you have anymore questions you can refer to Lennox, head of NEST." Another curt nod.

"Hold on; we?" The burly holoform vanished. Sky gaped once more as his true form unfolded itself. Her gaze fell on the massive canons mounted on each arm. "Wow. Nice gear you got there." He grinned, maybe the squishy wasn't all bad.

Lennox and Sergeant Epps made his way to the duo, "Hi 'Hide. Who's the civilian?"

"I'm Sky Evans." She shook Will's hand and high-fived Epps.

"Sup? I'm Epps and this is Lennox."

"Miss Evans- ("Sky",) Sky; you're going to have to come with us for a more thorough debriefing, one of the bots is trying to locate your friend." She followed her two men, matching their quick steps with her long legs.

Ironhide made his way to Ratchet's work station. A place he usually avoided thanks to flying tools.

"Any luck Ratchet?" Asked Prime who was standing by, the femmes sobbing carrier in his servo, clutching her sleeping sparkling as if he too, may be taken from her.

"I am currently using the energon scanner I set up last week and using it to find the most likely Decepticon hideout." He tapped frantically, glossa sticking out the corner of his mouth slightly, not that anyone would dare point that out to him. "Ah-hah; I'm getting a very strong signal from 50 miles West of Washington. I suggest we roll out as soon as possible, we don't know what state Mallory is in, or if she is alive."

"Understood, I will put together a team, we will need you here to operate the groundbridge and so that you may be prepared to face any injuries she has sustained." He turned his determined gaze to Rachel, now hiccuping and staring up at Ratchet with pure gratitude. "Will will return to you your sparkling Rachel. This I vow."

I only just decided to put in Sides, but then, I couldn't really not. Also, Flare-up was a 'hmm what bot?' kinda thing. Hope everyone was in character, I felt like Ironhide went out a bit...

I'm sososososososososososososo sorry about how long this took. Please forgive me and maybe a drop in a review?

Love yous and stay awesome.

'Till all are one!