Hi, guys! I'm back with another chapter! I haven't been able to write for a bit, though - I've got NaNoWriMo on the brain!

Thanks to wwareham1 for the Favorite!

kat151820 - I'm glad you like how I'm working with my characters. If you want to know more about that particular Pokemon Adventure, the story is Khrista Chronicles: I Choose You! Maria doesn't play the lead in this particular story - her neighbor and friend gets the spotlight instead. ;)

Shadescribe - Yup, that pretty much sums it up. This next one's still gonna be a bit slow, but we will start getting some action soon-ish. ;)

Here we go!

Chapter 11

Maria and the rest of her family jumped out of the helicopter as it landed in the clearing that had the Harbinger. Or, at least, what was left of it.

"Whoa." Liz stared at the large crater where the Decepticon shuttle had been. "What happened?"

"It looks like the Decepticons found out we'd been hiding here," Joshua commented. He frowned. "It also looks like they'd decided to blow it up to make sure that no one'd be able to use it again. That's a shame - we hadn't been able to completely remove all the parts for the Ground Bridge and look them over. At least Ratchet knows how they work."

"Yeah." Maria blinked a couple times, then shook her head and looked away from the crater. "We should probably head back to the house and grab our stuff. That's a pretty good distance away from here, though."

"You're good with waiting here for a couple hours tops, right?" Matthew looked in on the pilot of the helicopter.

The man gave them the "ok" sign. "Just make sure you get back here. I mean, you guys are kinda famous and all, but we don't want anything about those...big guys getting out."

"Right." Maria nodded in agreement, then turned and looked at the others. "So, how are we gonna get back to the house?"

"I can teleport," Khrista replied, her shirt shifting from dull red to a bright gold. "I can get us to the main street and back when we're ready."

"Cool." Morgen grinned. "Let's do it."

Khrista held out her hands. "You guys are going to need to grab on."

The others moved around Khrista, placing a hand on her shoulders and her arms. Each one felt a small tremor of energy at the same time that a flash seemed to come from Khrista's shirt.

One moment of disorientation later, and the group was standing out on the street in front of their homes.

"Whoa." Liz let go of Khrista's right arm, blinking a couple times. "That felt really weird."

"You get used to it," Maria responded absently, letting go of Khrista's left arm. She looked around for a moment before making a beeline for her house. "Let's get our stuff and meet back here!"

"Right." Khrista nodded in agreement as the others let go of her arms and shoulders. "And we don't need to grab too much."

"That depends on what you mean by 'too much',"Joshua commented. He turned and started jogging down the street. "We'll meet back here in an hour!"

"Sounds good!" Matthew gave Joshua's retreating form a thumbs-up before following after Maria.

Once the Carlsdales were inside their home, they split in different directions. Maria and Liz made their way upstairs to their room, then started opening drawers and grabbing different items.

"I definitely need to change my clothes," Liz declared. She shut the door to their room and started doing just that, grabbing a white shirt and purple jacket.

Maria dove into the closet and brought out a red backpack. "My stuff from Neo-Mobius is definitely coming with me - especially my DS and games. Let's see..." She turned and opened her wardrobe, which didn't have her clothes anymore - Maria couldn't exactly wear them over her armor. "I think I'll take only a couple books - I want enough room in here for the DVDs..."

"Do you think Miko watches anime?"

Maria looked around an open door in her makeshift bookshelf, blinking at the question. "Uh...maybe? She is from Japan. Why do you ask?" She disappeared from Liz's line of sight again and grabbed the thick "game guide" that had come with Smash Worlds Tournament, then started stuffing it into her backpack.

Liz was standing in front of the small bookshelf that was in one corner of the room. "I was thinking about bringing a couple volumes with me. What do you think - Naruto or Fullmetal Alchemist?"

Maria frowned, closing the doors of the wardrobe and slinging the backpack over one shoulder. "Hmmm...I dunno; I haven't really watched that stuff. Which one's your favorite?"

Liz snorted at the question. "Fullmetal, definitely." She started picking up volumes of the "backwards comics," as Maria had referred to them sometimes. As Liz started stuffing volumes into her purple satchel, she asked, "Hey, are you ever going to get into anime and manga? Some of this stuff is pretty good."

Maria cocked her head slightly to consider the question, then shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, what you've told me about some of those things are pretty cool, but there are a bunch of other things that I've been keeping up with." She grinned a little. "And catching up on. Star Trek is pretty cool."

"Well, yeah, but I think you'd like some of the stuff that these guys come up with." Liz waved a volume of Fullmetal Alchemist in the air, smirking.

There was a knock on the door. "Girls, it's your mother!"

"We're decent!" Liz called back.

Katie opened the door, coming in with a suitcase. "I figured you'd want at least a few changes of clothes. Maria, we've got all the DVDs and VCRs in a bag on the kitchen table - including yours. I figured you'd want to keep tabs on them."

Maria nodded, smiling. "Yeah. Thanks."

"And thanks for the suitcase!" Liz grabbed the bag and dragged it over to where she kept her clothes before opening it up and starting to throw clothes inside. "I'm definitely going to need this stuff...Hey, Mom, how many days do you think I should pack for?"

"I'd probably say a week," Maria commented.

"That's what I was thinking," Katie confirmed.

"Kay." Liz looked over at Maria. "Now, are you planning on sticking around in here? Because you should probably go downstairs if you don't need to grab anything else."

Maria blinked at the statement, then glanced back at the wardrobe of books before frowning a little. "Hmmm...I don't think I need anything else at the moment...so I'll probably be fine." She looked up at Katie. "I'll wait in the kitchen for you guys to get ready, kay Mom?"

Katie gave a nod, then moved out of the doorway so that Maria could slip out and head downstairs, red backpack over one armored shoulder.

When Maria arrived downstairs, she found that there wasn't anyone else waiting at the kitchen table - considering that she had seen her parents and siblings in their respective bedrooms on the way down, she figured that they were still trying to get their stuff together.

I kinda wish that Joshua had shown me that "item disappearing trick" that he was doing before we attacked Darkmount, the Reploid thought to herself as she tried to adjust her backpack's position on her left shoulder. It doesn't feel right to have this bumping against my hoverboard when it's compact and attached to my back like this.

Maria let out a sigh and slipped the backpack off her shoulder, letting it drop onto one of the kitchen chairs. Then she noticed the large, black duffel that was sitting on the kitchen table, and her interest spiked. "Hmm? Oh, that must be where Mom and Dad put all the DVDs and cassettes. I wonder what Mom and Dad ended up running into..."

Just as Maria was reaching for the zipper on the duffel, she was startled when she heard a voice.

"You're going to have to wait to look in there until we get back to the Autobots and get everything set up," Morgen said as he came in with a suitcase of his own. Setting it down on the kitchen floor, he looked at Maria with an amused expression while his daughter gained a sheepish one. "I know you've been bugging us about it for a while, but I know that you can wait for just a little bit longer."

Maria gained a slight scowling expression, but then let out another sigh. "Yeah, you're probably right about that. It's just...I want to see what you guys have done. I know you're World Jumpers, but-"

"You want to know how long we did it," Morgen guessed. When he saw the look on his daughter's face, he let out a chuckle. "You're pretty much an open book, Maria."

"How am I an open book to you?" Maria frowned.

"I know a few tricks," Morgen responded off-handedly.

After Morgen had come down, it didn't take too long before Matthew and the others joined them in the kitchen with everything that they figured they'd like to have with them - at least for the first few days.

"We should probably head out and see if Khrista and Joshua are ready yet," Matt remarked when Collin finally managed to drag his suitcase down the stairs. "Think we got everything?"

"I think so." Maria gave a one-shoulder shrug as she pulled her backpack up onto her left shoulder again, then grabbed the black duffel bag. Even with taking her Reploid body into account, she still had difficulty lifting it. "Dad, what'd you put in here? Our entire movie library?"

"Nah." Morgen smirked. "The PS3 is in there, though."

"Why?" Liz raised an eyebrow.

"I figured the kids would like to play through that Smash game once they finished watching it."

Maria blinked, then smirked and let out a chuckle. "I'd like to see them try and beat one of us at it." She hefted the duffle with a grunt, grabbing the handles with both hands. "All right. Let's get going."

The Carsldales stepped out of the house in single file with some jostling because of all the bags they were carrying with them. As soon as Morgen was done locking the front door behind them, Joshua and Khrista came running up the street, a slightly panicked look on the latter's face.

"Grab on and let's go!" Khrista exclaimed quickly, motioning for the Carlsdales to come over.

"What's going on?" Collin asked in confusion as the family came over.

"Her parents are being their usual protective selves," Joshua responded. He didn't necessarily look panicked, but there was something about the way his voice sounded that suggested he wasn't exactly calm, either.

"Oh." Katie stepped forward and planted a hand on Khrista's left shoulder. "Well? What are you all waiting for?"

Everyone else scrambled over with their baggage and took hold of Khrista's arms and shoulders again. When the flash came this time, Maria thought for a moment that she could see Khrista's parents out of the corner of her eye, but her view of things was completely replaced by the forest, the helicopter, and the remains of the Harbinger.

As Maria and the others stepped back from Khrista and started towards the helicopter, where the pilot was sitting in the open doorway with an expression of muted surprise on his face. He blinked a couple times before he rose to his feet and started helping the group haul themselves and their luggage into the helicopter.

"This is it?" The pilot looked at Morgen with a serious look.

Morgen gave a nod. "Yup. Hopefully, when they get the Ground Bridge up and running, we can make regular runs home without having to worry about stuff like this." He patted the pile of suitcases.

"Yeah. That'd make my job a lot easier." The pilot gave a dry grin before closing the helicopter's side door and jumping into the driver's seat. "We wouldn't have to make trips like this all the time, then!"

Maria smiled at the pilot's comment and probably would have added something had the helicopter not started up with a loud roar before jolting up into the air.

"Let's get back to that airport," the pilot commented. "Then we'll send you back on your way and you can join your buddies."

"Yeah," Matthew agreed. He grinned. "I can't wait to see the look on Miko's face when she sees the stuff in there." He motioned to the black duffel at Maria's feet.

"I want to see what Mom and Dad put in there from what they can remember," Maria countered. "But yeah, when they see what the rest of us did..." She grinned. "That's definitely going to be interesting."

Time Break

When the group returned to Nevada after a few hours flight (and a few minutes of army personnel rifling through their luggage to make sure they weren't carrying anything too suspicious), the hanger that the Autobots were using as their replacement base was being to look more like a base and less like a hanger.

"Hey, guys!" Maria called out as they stepped into the base. "We're back! And we brought some stuff!"

Miko and the others turned when they heard Maria's call, the exchange student gaining a bright grin.

"Hey! About time you guys got back!" Miko held up what looked like a slice of pizza. "You're just in time for dinner!"

"Awesome!" Collin dropped his suitcase and ran over to where the group was sitting at a large table. "I was getting really hungry!"

Maria chuckled as she gently lowered the duffel before placing her backpack next to it; the others followed suit. "Yeah, it obviously wasn't first class, was it?"

"So, what'd you guys get?" Raf asked as the group joined them and started grabbing slices for their own dinner.

"Basic things we needed to live," Matt responded. "Y'know, clothes, bathroom stuff, books..." He smirked knowingly. "Movies and a few games. That kind of thing."

"I was thinking a little more about what I could use in the technological sense," Joshua commented, reaching behind him and pulling out a large duffel. "But I did grab a few other things." He dropped the duffel by the others before turning and looking at something that the Autobots were clearly setting up in the back of the hanger. "Jolt, I brought the parts we were looking for!"

"Great!" Jolt's voice came from somewhere underneath what looked like a giant computer dashboard. "Bring them on over here. We'll start working on that as soon as I'm done here."

Joshua moved into the back of the base while the others watched in confusion. When he started pulling what looked like machine parts from behind his back, the others' confusion only increased.

"How is he doing that?" Jack asked in surprise.

"You know how to access your subspace?" Ratchet asked, looking down at the blue Reploid with an expression of surprise.

"Subspace?" Raf repeated. "What's that?"

Jolt came out from underneath the dashboard and rose to his feet. "A subspace is basically a pocket dimension. Every Cybertronian's got one, but not all of them really feel like using one. I told Joshua about it, and he figured out how to get into his on his own, so I guess it's not just Cybertronians who can have one."

"Cool!" Miko exclaimed. "Does that mean I could carry my guitar and stuff with me everywhere I go and not need Bulkhead to do that for me?"

"If you can figure out how to get into it," Joshua responded.

"I definitely need to figure that out," Maria muttered. She took a large bite out of the sausage pizza slice in her hand. "Carrying my backpack like that just felt weird with my hoverboard sharing space on my back."

"Your what?" Raf asked in surprise.

"You have a hoverboard?!" Miko looked like she was practically drooling. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?!"

Maria looked over at the two of them with a blank expression, blinking a couple times. "...Because I didn't really think that I needed to? It's not exactly important, is it? Besides, you already saw it before we went after Darkmount, remember?"

"I still wanna see it!" Miko insisted. "And ride it, too!"

"I'm trying to eat dinner here!" Maria held up the pizza piece in her hand and shook it a little. "Can't this wait until later?"

Miko gained a pouting expression and sat back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest in a rather annoyed manner.

Raf frowned and cocked his head to one side. "Um...you're technically a robot, right? So, doesn't that mean you don't have to eat?"

Maria paused mid-bite into the pizza, blinking before swallowing the rest of the slice. "Yes and no. When I eat this stuff, it gets turned straight into energy that helps top me off. I keep up the habit, but I don't really need to rely on it all that much." She smirked. "And it's not just this kind of food that can keep me going, either. The last world I was on - the one with the alternate versions of you guys - let me find out that I can run on Energon if I wanted to, too."

That cued a spluttering noise from the listening-in Ratchet. "What?!"

"How did you figure that out?" First Aid asked, blinking. "I didn't think it was possible for a Reploid."

Maria shrugged, then grabbed another slice. "I guess it is."

"We only found out about it because Maria used up all her energy and nearly killed herself," Matthew pointed out, sending his sister a dark look. "Twice."

"Brainiac was mind-controlling Megatron, and I panicked!" Maria looked over at her older brother with wide eyes while the others looked down at her with mixed expressions. "Of course I was gonna fight back with everything I had! I didn't want to end up mind control fodder again! It was kind of a spur-on-the-moment thing!"

"Hey - calm down!" Jack held up his hands. "We're not blaming you for anything."

"Yeah," Liz agreed. "I'd probably have done the same thing if I was there."

"Although, you probably should have trained a little more with pushing that energy cap," Joshua commented, coming over. "Then you might have been a little better off."

"What are you talking about?" Miko asked, frowning in confusion.

Maria sighed and ran a hand down her face. "You guys remember how I said that I can go off like a volcano sometimes?" When the others nodded - some with a knowing expression, others with an eager one - she explained, "That's a move I like to call 'White Flare.' It takes a lot of energy to use, so I haven't done it very often. When I went up against, well...him, I pushed myself past my normal limit. Hitting 125 Percent is pretty much my last resort right now."

"Then it would probably be best if you didn't use it," Ratchet commented matter-of-factly.

"But if she's going to get stronger, then she's going to have to."

Maria turned and looked at Khrista with an incredulous expression. "What?"

"You need to get stronger, right?" Khrista pressed. "Then you're going to have to learn to master stronger and stronger moves. Pushing yourself beyond what you normally do might up your level somehow."

Maria frowned at that, her mouth tightening into a straight line.

"We should probably think about that later," Morgen commented, getting the kids' attention. "We've got other stuff to do, right? Like finding a place somewhere in here to sleep and hang out until that Ground Bridge gets fixed."

The others looked at each other at Morgen's comment; Miko gained a wide grin on her face.

"I want to see what you guys've done!" Miko declared.

"I am kind of curious about that," Jack agreed.

Morgen laughed. "All right, then! Just point us to where the TV is, and we'll start setting up!" He pulled the black duffel bag out of the pile of luggage they had brought with them. "Who do you want to see first? Mine? Katie's? Maria's?"

"Let's start with your daughter's," Fowler suggested, looking at Maria with an insistent expression.

Maria blinked a couple times at that. "Uh...sure? We're going to have to start with the first one." She got up from her seat and looked over at Morgen. "You remember which one it is, right?"

Morgen grinned as he pulled out a DVD. "Director's Edition."

Time Break

Unfortunately, there was only enough time that day to get through Maria's (and, surprisingly for most of those present) and Liz's first adventure off-world.

Miko pouted unhappily as the credits rolled on Treasure Planet. "You guys are so lucky! I wish I could do something like that!"

Maria chuckled at Miko's statement. "Well, I dunno if you would really want to...I mean, there are a lot of things that could happen - and some of them could be pretty bad..."

"Well, Disney's got some fun stuff! They've got the Avengers now!"

Maria frowned. "Still extremely dangerous."

"I find it difficult to believe that such things are capable of occurring," Ultra Magnus stated, frowning at the large-screen TV that Fowler had brought in.

"Perhaps this belief is what has made travel such as this a rare sight," Optimus commented thoughtfully. He frowned. "The 'Heartless' and 'Dream Eaters,' however, are worrysome. If Megatron were to come into contact with them, not only would he be consumed, but we would have a very difficult war on our hands."

Arcee nodded in agreement. "They don't look like they'll let us shoot them down easily."

"I don't think they could ever show up here." Liz paused when everyone looked over at her. After a moment, she continued, "From what it sounds like, each different world Maria and the rest of us have gone to kept their problems in their own worlds."

"For the most part," Maria responded. "A small number of Heartless did leak onto Neo-Mobius for a short time, and Tails and Kintobor came to help me out when I became a Reploid. Otherwise, the worlds do seem to keep a hold on their own trouble - like they can't get out and bother other places unless there's a rip in the dimensional walls somewhere..." The Reploid trailed off, frowning.

"Are you suggesting that there might be rips in space between worlds?" Wheeljack raised an optic ridge.

"I dunno..." Maria's frown deepened. "It would definitely explain the Heartless on Neo-Mobius, at least. Tails and Kintobor created a one-way portal in order to get to me, but that probably just opened and closed an access point to one of the Lanes Between - natural portals between dimensions. They're certainly smart enough to be able to find one."

"Lanes Between are capable of being accessed, if you have the correct equipment," Joshua agreed. "However, they take a large amount of energy to open, if you are not a World Jumper who is meant to be capable of traveling between worlds."

"Are you suggesting that you are the only ones capable here to open ways to other dimensions?" Optimus asked.

Maria nodded, then paused. "Well...I think so?"

"It's not something that I have yet been able to look into," Joshua added.

"There are a lot of things that have been left as secrets in the multiverse," Morgen said. "I think this counts as one of those times we need to leave it a secret."

"Why?" Ratchet eyed Mr. Carlsdale in a curious manner. "Surely you're curious."

Morgen and Katie exchanged looks at the question.

"When we went to Jonny Quest's world, there was a scientist there who was trying to figure out the multiverse theory," Morgen explained. "He was the first guy there who tried to come up with it, actually."

"He found out about us when we were helping Jonny hunt down his father, Dr. Benton Quest," Katie added. "When he tried to figure out what exactly made the portals work and where the Lanes Between had originally come from, he disappeared in a deadly explosion that destroyed everything mechanical in his lab. We think he got pulled into the multiverse somewhere."

Maria and her siblings exchanged looks at that.

"So, experimenting with interdimensional forces is a bad thing," Khrista noted. She frowned. "Then I'd like to figure out how Cyrus managed to get that thing working..."

"Warp Rings, probably," Maria replied. "He had Finitivus as Charon working under him, remember?"

Khrista blinked, then scowled. "Oh. Yeah."

"Who?" Bulkhead asked.

"Cyrus is the main villain in a Pokemon region called Sinnoh," Matthew explained. "He's also the guy who was doing all the kidnapping from our neighborhood a while back."

"Charon was his head scientist," Maria added. "They've been caught, though, so we don't have to worry about them."

"Who caught them?"

"The Zone Cops." Maria shrugged, smiling a little. "Khrista and I knocked the two of them around, then handed them over."

"Zone Cops?" Optimus sounded even more curious than he had sounded previously.

"A group of counterparts for everyone across the multiverse who try to keep things in balance," Morgen explained. "If anyone ends up doing anything that could upset the balance of not only their universe, but others, then they get involved in order to do something about it."

Maria nodded in agreement. "Yeah. And all their names start with 'Z.' My counterpart, for example, is probably named Zaria. I haven't been able to meet anyone who I could call a counterpart, though, so I don't really know for sure."

Optimus blinked for a moment, absorbing that statement for a moment. "Intriguing. I had not considered that there would be a force keeping the multiverse in balance beyond the World Jumpers."

"Well, we can't be everywhere at once," Katie pointed out. "And we have our own lives to lead, as well."

"If there is a force keeping the world in balance, then why is it that you humans are getting involved?" Ultra Magnus asked, frowning. "It seems counterproductive - especially when there is a high chance that you will make the situation far worse."

The World Jumpers exchanged looks, Maria and Joshua looking at each other with slight frowns.

"That question would probably have to be asked of the first World Jumper," Morgen said finally.

"The first World Jumper?" Maria repeated in surprise, looking up at her father.

"Do you know this being?" Optimus asked.

Morgen shook his head. "Not directly, no, but there are rumors that go around. Some people have claimed all sorts of things about the first World Jumper - no one knows what gender the person was - or even if the person had a gender - or even what sorts of abilities the World Jumper had. No one even knows what his or her name was."

Maria blinked a couple times when she heard that, wondering how exactly her dad had heard that. "Huh. I wonder if we'll ever get to meet him. Or her."

"That's probably not going to happen," Katie responded. "The Multiverse has been around for thousands of years, you know."

"Indeed," Optimus agreed. "For now, we will simply have to learn as you continue to travel between worlds; perhaps we will understand everything that is required of World Jumpers in the future."

"Hopefully," Joshua agreed. "I find it extremely frustrating that I can't understand everything that we come across."

"Don't we all," Maria responded dryly.

Yeah, mostly talking again here. But it might become pretty important later - I don't know for sure yet.

I'll see you guys next week!