21.

Miles woke up the next morning feeling much better; maybe though it had something to do with the fact Kyuubi had let him beat on a dummy in his mind scape to release his anger at himself for having to be saved. From what he'd gleamed from his memories as Naruto, he did the saving, not the other way around.

After the blond had washed up and changed, he went out to greet Skywarp and go to school, but halted in his tracks as noticed the Cadillac wasn't in the parking lot. He looked around the street to see if the 'car' was there, but no such luck. He hurried inside and dialed Trent's number, Kyuubi having made them exchange home numbers to in case of emergencies, and this definitely qualified.

He heard Skywarp's words about being compromised and caught echoing in his mind as he fought to keep his panic from rising.

"What?" A cranky voice asked from the other line.

"Is Skywarp at your house by chance?" Miles asked.

"No, why?" Trent questioned back.

Miles gulped. "He said we were being followed by the Bug and told me to run home and said he'd get them off our trail or get caught. I guess he got caught." He replied faintly.

Trent swore on the other line and the sound of a door opening was heard and the sound of the other blond and TC talking was also heard before Trent spoke into the phone. "TC said this isn't good."

"I kinda got that." Miles retorted sharply.

"No, he means this isn't good since he and Skywarp have been using our chakra to not only heal themselves but stave off Sky Hunger." Trent explained.

"Sky Hunger?" Miles questioned as he didn't like the sound of that.

"It's a condition seekers get when they don't fly for very long, but TC said he and 'Warp were desperate as their injuries were too severe so they had to talk on the forms they have now, and it was only by chance that they lucked out when we bought them." Trent replied.

"How long do we have until Skywarp starts to be affected by this Sky Hunger?" Miles asked.

There was some mutterings before Trent spoke into the phone again. "Well, TC said he'd felt the signs just before I bought him, so maybe a day or so."

This time Miles swore as he ran a hand through his hair. "How the hell are we gonna find him with such little time on our side."

"Miles, you're a ninja, use that mind of yours." Kyuubi said in his mind. "Who can you squeeze for information on where they might have taken Skywarp?"

Miles thought about this, and since it was the Bug that had been following them last night… "Wait, I think I got the perfect solution. But you have to pick me up."

"Fine, you can tell us your plan on the way to school." Trent said before hanging up the phone.

Miles also hung up the phone. 'I could really use some trick that's easy to do.'

"Fine, this little technique is quite easy to do, it's called the Transformation Jutsu…"

"Aw, 'Warp, of all the messes you've ended up in, this is by far the worse." TC groaned as he and Trent drove to Miles, the 'sparkling' nestled in an alt-mode of a cell phone inside one of the cup holders.

"You mean he's never gotten caught by these Autobots before?" Trent asked amazed.

"Oh, he's gotten caught before, but he'd just warp out to safety." Thundercracker replied.

Trent's expression turned confused. "'Warp out?'" he repeated.

"There's a reason why Skywarp is called that. He has a rare warp drive in his system that allows for what your species calls teleporting." Thundercracker explained.

"Cool."

"Not if you're the one warping with him." TC added.

Trent raised a brow at the tone. "I take it you know this from personal experience?"

Before he got a reply, they'd arrived at Miles' home, with the other blond waiting outside, staring forlornly at the spot on the drive that Skywarp had probably been.

"Let's go." Trent called out the window.

Miles nodded and got into the passenger seat. "I need you to stop at the corner of Sam's house." He said closing the door.

Trent stared at him. "Why the hell do you wanna go there? I thought you ditched him?"

"I did." Miles replied tersely. "I'm going to get information out of him."

"How, hold him up at knife point?" Trent joked before he paused. "Actually that's not a bad idea."

"Trust me, I already thought of that." Miles said waving the suggestion off. "I can't do that since I'll have the cops on me, but Kyuubi and I did come up with a way to trick him into talking."

"How?" Trent asked dubiously.

Miles' hands flashed through several hand signs and in a puff of smoke, instead of a blond teenage boy, there was now a dark-haired teenage girl. "This is how." 'Mikaela' said.

Trent stared 'her' with a slack jaw. "You…you just turned into Mikaela."

The 'girl' nodded. "I will use this form to trick Sam into telling us where 'Warp is."

"Hmm, it's a good plan, but how do you know he'll tell you?" Thundercracker asked.

'Mikaela' smirked. "Just leave that all up to me."

"Then 'Warp is doomed." Trent deadpanned and the 'girl' shot him a dark look.

"Hey Sam."

The brunet looked up at his girlfriend and smiled. "Hey 'Kaela, what are you doing here?"

Mikaela scowled at him. "You mean I can't get a ride to school?"

Sam held his hands up defensively. "No, it's cool, just asking." He said as he didn't want to upset her.

The girl smiled at him and got into the passenger seat. "Let's get going then, or did I catch you at a bad time?" she asked tilting her head.

Sam flushed and shook his head as he scurried into the driver seat. "Uh, no, not bad time at all." He said and the car started on its own and back out of the driveway.

Mikaela leaned her elbow against the edge of the window and looked out at the passing houses and when they arrived at the school, she noticed the missing car. "I wonder what happened to Miles' car."

"Oh, it turned out to be a 'Con." Sam replied.

Mikaela turned in her seat at that. "Really? And he never suspected anything?"

Sam shrugged. "Well, the 'Bots think the best bet was that the 'Con was subliminally turning Miles against us and that's why he was so angry with me. Maybe now that the 'Con's gone he'll go back to normal and be my friend again."

Mikaela shrugged her shoulders. "Anything's possible. So where is this 'Con now, did it get destroyed or what?"

"It's in the base out in the desert, the 'Bots think it'll crack because of something called 'Sky Hunger.'" Sam said as they got out of the 'car.'

Mikaela looked down at her cell phone. "Oh, I got to take this, go on without me." She said walking off the side and watched Sam go into the building. She looked around to make sure no one was watching and put the phone to her ear. "Base in the desert, tell TC to call us and let us know if he finds anything."

"Right."

'Mikaela' walked across the school to the back door and turned back into a blond teenager. He looked around and saw a dark-haired girl riding up on a Vespa. "I wish I could see the look on Sam's face when finds out he's been had." Miles muttered to himself and he smirked before heading into the school made his way to class.