Love the reviews: Hurit Sokanan, Khalthar, HeartsGuardianSol and Counting Sinful Stars.

Thank you for the follows/favs: Hurit Sokanan, LadyAK, and WhitePhoenix357.

May this bring happiness and smiles to close out the old year.

Stay safe and warm.


Sarah sighed at the rule list. One of the new recruits had introduced the Autobots to parody songs. Specifically the music videos of Weird Al. Like his "Fat" one.

Naturally the Autobots thought all overweight people should be dancing, singing flesh equivalent of transformers. She explained that humans don't blow up to obese levels of fat in seconds. Then she described parodies to Prowl after he'd glitched. It also helped explain the "Perform This Way" parody by the same artist. They had asked to go meet him, but Sarah managed to convince them it was all digital trickery. Also that humans don't come out of a pod or egg. She requested health class videos to stop further misunderstandings about human biology.

The best part had been Ratchet and Optimus. They'd watched the videos to understand the issue. Optimus had smiled. Ratchet would have busted a gut if he had one from all the laughing. They got it was a parody before she explained it.

Finishing the new set of rules, she looked up.

Sarah blinked around her, wondering how she came to stand in a sandy ravine. The rocks looked twisted, as if they'd been melted and twisted into shape by a glass blower.

"You cannot change the tragedy coming. Only the outcome after."

Sarah whirled, stared up into bright blue eyes, "Then why warn me it is coming, Primus?"

"The warning is not meant for you to take action now. It is intended to prepare Optimus for what comes ahead."

"Why come through me?" she asked the tall Cybertronian.

"You hear all of us," he looked to the side.

Standing beside Coyote, Bobcat, Wolf, Hawk, Owl and Snake were more Cybertronians. Strange to her eyes yet also familiar, the Cybertronian shapes were unlike those of the Autobots she'd befriended.

"All of you?" Sarah looked up at Primus, "Why am I hearing you all, when I only heard Earth before?"

Snake hissed, "We are all children of this universe. You just assumed the words you heard were Earth's alone."

"If you listen carefully enough, you can hear the wisdom of other species," one of the new Cybertronians knelt, long hair like tendrils sliding over the shoulder to swing in front of Sarah.

"Would any of those help, Optimus?" Sarah asked.

Primus shook his helm, "He has what he needs. You are now the one we are concerned for."

"Why?"

"You are injured," Wolf snorted, "You cannot fight as you need to."

She growled, "I will fight regardless of my physical condition. Point me to the enemy and they will fall to my words or my will."

Wolf wrinkled his muzzle, chuckling, "Then where is your armor?"

"What?"

John held her shoulders, "Chief, you were out for ten minutes. Ratchet sent me over to wake you."

She shivered, blinking around the room.

"What did the world say?" John sat down opposite her.

She touched her eye, then realized her hands shook.

Setting them on the desk, she breathed.

"Get Mark, Annie and Frank," she listened to more information from the Earth...the Universe, "No, we go to Wheeljack's lab. We'll need Ratchet."

"Something big?" John stood and got her crutches.

"Big enough that I need to go into battle," she stood and took the crutches.

"You can't," John frowned, "Your leg."

"That is why we need Ratchet and Wheeljack," she swung out of the office, "Double time it, John."

She paused at the checkpoint before Wheeljack's section, putting on her safety glasses and earplugs. Then proceeded with her mission.

Stepping into the lab she got to see Wheeljack's side fins flashing in excitement. Without an explosion involved.

"All done."

"Wheeljack?" Sarah called.

He scrambled, pulling a cover over the device, "Don't sneak up like that."

"I hope Ratchet approved that, Wheeljack," Sarah ascended the walkway to the safety box, John trotting up behind her.

"I did," Ratchet walked in, carrying Annie and Mark in one servo, Frank in the other, "Wheeljack, close the door please."

With the door closed, Sarah and her tribe set up in the box, Ratchet peeked under the cover, "This is perfect. Mantra and Exo will be pleased."

"Been so long since I got to make a protoform. I miss it," Wheeljack then looked at Sarah, "Umm. Disregard what I said."

"Ratchet, you'll explain later," Sarah stated, "I think what I have to relay is critical for whatever is coming."

"Another message from Earth?" Ratchet sat on a stool, Wheeljack fidgeting.

"From both the Great Spirits and Primus. There were other Cybertronians as well. They say what I've said before now is meant to prepare Optimus. Today's is to prepare me. They said they were worried as I'm wounded. I told them them I'd fight with my words and will. Wolf asked about my armor."

Mark jumped up, "They want us to make you new armor?"

"The problem has two sides. That is why we need your help, Ratchet, Wheeljack. My armor attached me to the leg mechanisms of my armor. I can't do that with my leg the way it is. In addition, I don't think ten minutes of power is going to cut it. I can't use the designs of the others since they all require my leg to be whole."

"Primus and Wolf said you need to go into battle?" Ratchet scowled.

She paused then said, "They were concerned for me, though Wolf asked after my armor."

"Your armor designs wouldn't allow you to fight without limping," Wheeljack considered, then brightened, "We'll redesign them."

Annie stepped closer, "She has to have the same size armor she did before."

"Why?" Ratchet asked.

"That is the size she used for practice and the fight. If it's the same size, she doesn't need to retrain herself," Annie looked over to Mark, "We noticed that if Mark uses my armor he's less effective since mine is half again as tall. Sarah's was the biggest so if she attempted to use one smaller, it may reduce her ability to fight."

Sarah blinked, surprised to find herself sitting.

"You back?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah," she shook her head, "Three minutes. It's getting longer."

"On average you are running two minutes six seconds," Annie offered.

Sarah recalled what she'd heard, "Would we get more runtime it we convert half the backpack space into batteries?"

"The problem is weight," Wheeljack waved to a diagram he had up, "If we removed the backpack entirely, that would be better overall, but only gain twenty minutes."

"Thirty minutes?" Sarah sighed, considering the diagram, her brain working.

Then she hit on some inspiration, "What if we made the armor metal into a braided cord? The armor metal is lighter than the mechanical cords we used for muscle equivalent, but stronger."

Mark scratched his head, "That would require a lot of time and strength to weave wires of the metal together, assuming it doesn't snap."

She grinned, "Frank, didn't you see Mudflap and Skids diligently weaving ropes together for a prank?"

Frank snorted, "The only time I've seen them sit still and not fight."

"If we convinced them to weave the metal wires together, that would reduce the interior weight far more than the backpack ever could. Then remove the backpack and that should get us to forty minutes, right?" Sarah looked up at Wheeljack.

His fins flashed, "That would be closer to fifty."

"If you are going to do this, I'm going to insist on better shielding for where you'll sit. I don't want to set your fragile bones again," Ratchet insisted.

"Back down to thirty minutes if we do that," Wheeljack frowned, rotating the image, "We might as well use a protoform interior instead since the spark chamber is automatically enforced and the protoform uses the wires of that same metal."

"What is a protoform?" Sarah asked, "Why is it similar to what we are proposing?"

Ratchet looked at them, then got the distant look.

"Optimus says I can explain this since it's part of our biology, but only to you five. Like you with your skeleton, organs, muscle and then skin, we have a similar makeup. Our protoform is our internal structures. Beneath where you cleaned was a skin of metal which surrounds our protoform. Wheeljack is proposing that we make a protoform core to your armor to make it lighter at the same time retaining the strength needed to keep you moving for about an hour."

Sarah swallowed, "Is the protoform Wheeljack working on for Jazz?"

"No," Wheeljack's fins flashed alarm as he put up his servos, "We can surgically graft attach neutral material to encourage protoform regrowth, but if Jazz was badly injured, we can't just make him a new body. It's not easy to change bodies," he looked at Ratchet got a nod, "These protoforms are for Mantra and Exo's sparklings."

"Spark...sparkling," Frank jerked, "You are saying that Exo is carrying the spirits of new Cybertronians and you made the protoform those spirits will call home?"

Ratchet nodded, "We can create a protoform that would fit inside the armor for Sarah, but it would be Sarah inside the spark chamber instead."

A thought crossed her mind, "If a spark chamber lost it's integrity for an Autobot, could my armor be used to temporarily store the spark?"

"Supposedly, if we were fast enough, it would be a permanent home. But you would have to exit the armor and that armor would be home to the spark."

The whisper of joy in the Universe made her shiver, "Then we should make this armor as close to a Cybertronian as we can. I can be a medical last stand if needed."

Ratchet sighed, "I'll need to discuss this with Optimus and Prowl. This falls into an area of giving humans technology they shouldn't have."

"Please do so. This feels like the path I'm being asked to take."

"Any special features you want?" Wheeljack asked.

"Like what?" Annie asked.

"Jolt, one of our new arrivals generates electricity. It is part of of his protofrom. Like Seekers can fly," Wheeljack went on to list many features a protoform could have.

Sarah smiled as the voices swirled around her, "I have always wanted to fly. Do you think if we made it a Seeker protoform I may fly?"

"Hardly," Ratchet scoffed, "You don't have the calculations to do that."

"However, if a spark is transferred to this armor, they could right?"

Ratchet looked distant, "I'll speak to Optimus about this. If we do give this Seeker features, you aren't flying it."

A voice like Wolf's howled across her ears, "You won't be flying it when it takes to the skies."

"Ratchet, Wheeljack, I'll let you be so you can finish your tasks. Let me know what Optimus' decision is. You may want Jazz's feedback. He's a little stir crazy since he's been base bound."

She stood and crutched to the stairs.

"Optimus likes that idea," Ratchet commented, "He also thinks that Jazz should be helping you with the rules."

She laughed, "I'll take all the help I can get in that area. I swear both twins are trying to get the most rules listed from their shenanigans."

Mark coughed, "I overheard Mudflap and Skids challenging Sideswipe and Sunstreaker about being the best pranksters."

Sarah opened her mouth just as the intercom sounded, "Liaison Twintower to firing range. Liaison Twintower to firing range."

She looked back at Mark, "I think this would have been good to share earlier."

Mark looked sheepish, "Sorry, chief."

Ratchet frowned, "I'm needed at the firing range as well," he offered his servo to Sarah.

"I hope it's not Prowl," Sarah let him pick her up.

"Not this time," Ratchet opened the door then stormed out.