Where There Is Smoke

by Lady Quickshift

TF:Prime, takes place after "Legacy"; Prime had hoped that having Jack teach Smokescreen about Earth would make the reckless newcomer a little more responsible, maybe they picked the wrong Darby for the job.

21. Chapter 19

Where There Is Smoke

Chapter 19

Rated T for language, suggestive material and anything else I might have missed.

Talking:

"English or other Earth language"

"Cybertronian"

"Talking on the phone or recordings"

:comm. link:

[Texting]

'Thought'

(Bond talk)

** (Bumblebee speaking) **

Spark feelings

Druatch

Flash back or change of time or place

Time changes:

Nano-klik=1/2 a klik. Klik= less than a second. Breem (cybertronian minute) = 8 minutes. Cycle=hour. Joor (cybertronian hour) = 6 hours. Solar cycle=day. Megacycle= 1 week. Orn= 13 days. Groon= 1 month. Deca-orn = 3 months. Stellar cycle= 1 year. Vorn=83 years

---

Everyone gathered in the main area around Optimus, who stood to face them. "Autobots, being as we have been unsuccessful in locating the Decepticon warship our best chance at the moment is to return to where the Nemesis was last seen and look for any possible clues as to where it's next target might be,"

They all gathered in front of the ground bridge and waited for Ratchet to open the portal while Blaster hooked himself up to the computer terminal so he could monitor the communications frequencies in case the 'Cons, namely Soundwave, tried to intercept them.

Optimus looked at each of his bots and his optics settled on the Techno-dragons. "While I understand any assistance the two of you can offer would be invaluable to this mission, I am afraid I will have to ask you to remain here as the location we will be bridging to is inhabited and we cannot allow the humans to know we are there,"

The Techno-dragon's wings drooped and they went to stand by the humans' platform. Silverbullet mumbled in some foreign language none of them besides Blaster and Greenblades seemed to know as the others ran through the swirling green portal as it opened.

Once they were gone, the femme seemed to calm down slightly as she and Greenblades went over to a corner and sat in meditative positions, except Silverbullet activated her holoform and walked down the hallway in it.

Ratchet looked at her and frowned "And where do you think you're going?"

Silverbullet stopped and looked up at him. "I've been working on something in the human kitchen area as a surprise for everyone. Hopefully I will be able to finish it before everyone else gets back," she continued walking down the hall without another word and shut herself in the kitchen.

Ratchet rolled his optics and looked intently at the computer screen where the team's life signals were displayed. "Femmes…"

Greenblades cracked an optic shutter open to look at him. "If anyone intends on making a comment on how a femme or woman's place is in the kitchen, need I remind you that is where the knives are kept?"

Ratchet and Blaster looked at him but he had already returned to his meditation as if nothing had happened so they just returned their attention back to their monitors.

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Meanwhile, at the island in Scotland

The Autobots stepped out of the ground bridge in the canyon where Smokescreen and Arcee had encountered Quickstrike, scanning the perimeter for any signs of life.

Finding none, they searched the canyon for any signs of a possible trail and then fanned out to the surrounding area.

While searching the area he and Arcee had "hit" the ground, Smokescreen asked over the comm. lines so he wouldn't have to shout. :Um, anyone have any idea what we're looking for? It's not like they would leave a trail of energon goodie crumbs leading to where they're hiding.:

Arcee rolled her optcs and answered sarcastically :Sure they would… right next to a big sign that says "Trap":

Smokescreen noticed her tone sounded different than her usual sarcasm, it was more like a playful teasing than the nasty bite-your-head-off kind of sarcasm she had been using before.

Bumblebee buzzed at them **(Come on, guys, we won't know if anything's here to find unless we look.)**

And so they did for a few more hours until Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead's internal chronometers started buzzing, prompting them to check the time.

"Scrap, the kids will be getting out of school soon,"

Bulkhead rubbed his helm "Can't we just bridge them…"

Ratchet heard their conversation through the comm. lines and answered tartly :No, too much risk of some human seeing the ground bridge opening close to the school. Unless one of you were to bridge back here to retrieve the children than that just leaves myself and Blaster and I only have enough room for one passenger in my cab so unless the other two want to ride in the back of an ambulance the whole way to the base I am not a viable option and Blaster is scrambling all of your signals so the Decepticons cannot detect you and making sure you all don't get lured into another jamming zone.:

That settled, they tried to decide who would be bridged back; They weren't going to make Optimus pick the children up—mostly because he was needed there and his alt. mode had the same problem as Ratchet's— and the children didn't know Tracks that well and Wheeljack wouldn't be the safest choice so that left Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Smokescreen.

The four of them gathered to try to talk it over. Arcee looked down at herself "I'd go, but motorcycles aren't really built for three so I guess that leaves you guys,"

The three mechs looked at each other and Bumblebee held out his fist **(Rock, paper scissors?)**

Smokescreen looked at him strangely "Rock… what?"

"It's a human game used to settle disagreements. Players hold out their fists like this…"

Bulkhead held out his fist like Bumblebee was and Smokescreen mimicked them. "Okay…"

"Then we all go 'rock… paper…'…" the two other mechs slowly pumped their fists up and down and again Smokescreen mimicked them. "…and when we say 'scissors' we either keep our servos fisted for rock, hold them flat for paper or hold two digits out for scissors. Paper covers rock, rock smashes scissors and scissors cuts paper,"

Smokescreen nodded. "Okay, I think I got it,"

"Ready? Go. Rock, paper scissors!" Bulkhead kept his servo in a fist for rock while Bumblebee held his flat for paper and Smokescreen held out two digits and moved them opened and closed to mimic scissors.

Arcee looked at their servos. "It's a tie, try again,"

"Ready? Go. Rock, paper, scissors!" This time both Bumblebee and Smokescreen picked paper and Bulkhead picked rock again.

Bulkhead saw he lost and groaned "Did you guys plan that?"

Smokescreen smirked at him. "Nope, just got lucky," he followed Arcee as she walked away calling over her shoulder. "Better hurry up Bulk, or I'll tell Miko you didn't want to pick her up,"

Bulkhead pressed a digit to the side of his helm and spoke into his comm. link. "Um, Ratchet… ground bridge please,"

The portal opened and Bulkhead ran through it and kept running past Ratchet who was grumbling "Ratchet bridge us here… Ratchet bridge us back… Ratchet, something broke can you fix it?" and transformed to drive out of the base and towards Jasper.

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Once the three kids gathered in front of the school to wait for whichever bot came to get them, Miko got a message from Silverbullet—she had never deleted "Justice Storm's" number from her phone and obviously the Techno-Dragoness still had hers—that said [Show this 2 June when u see her. If u 2 want something 2 do while base I got something us girls can do together hidden in the kitchen. Don't tell the boys, it's a surprise.]

Miko reread the message with a confused frown but forwarded it to Nurse Darby's phone anyway and looked around for her guardian and saw him parked on the end of the row of cars in front of the school with his holoform leaning against his grill with his arms crossed.

She threw her bag over her shoulder and ran over to him. "Hey, Bulk, how's it going?"

Bulkhead smiled at her. "Pretty good, Where's Jack and Raf?" he looked around for the two boys.

Miko waved her hand in their general direction. "Over there, waiting for their bots,"

Bulkhead looked over her shoulder—or rather over her since she only came up to his chest—at where Raf and Jack were sitting on the concrete steps. "Well, 'Bee and Arcee are still on a mission so it looks like we're all riding together,"

Miko slouched, reluctant to have to share her friend and dreading the fact that neither Jack nor Raf would like hearing Slash Monkey blasting out of the speakers the whole way to the base like they usually did. "Okay, I'll go get them,"

She went over to the two boys and gestured for them to get up. "Yo, looks like we're all riding in Bulkhead," the two boys looked at each other but shouldered their bags while the exchange student ran away declaring "Shotgun!"

"Shotgun… damn," Jack realized too late that he was too slow and marched after her with Raf trotting after him and climbed into the green truck's backseat while Miko jumped into the front passenger seat and Bulkhead's holoform sat in the driver's seat to "start" the truck and drive away.

Halfway back to the base, Blaster called Bulkhead. :Hey, Bulk, as long as you're out ya think ya could pick up June so we don't have to scare the poor lady bridgin' her here?:

Bulkhead huffed, wanting to get back to base so he could go help the others. :Fine.:

:Thanks, mech,:

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June stood in her driveway, waiting for her ride. She had called the base and asked if it was alright if she came over.

She had been expecting Ratchet to answer but got Blaster instead, his friendly manners was an unexpected refresher compared to Ratchet's gruff demeanor, and the Communications officer told her one of the bots was going to "swing by after he picks up the kids".

He didn't say which one it was but since he said it was a "he" that ruled out Arcee and he also mentioned he and Ratchet were stuck at the base while "Prahm an' the others" were out on a mission so that left one of the other mechs on the team.

A few minutes after that Bulkhead pulled up and Miko rolled down the window to wave at her. "Hey, Mrs. D. Are you heading to the base too?"

June smiled politely—she had heard about the way Bulkhead usually drives and was nervous about riding with him—and nodded. "Yes, I am,"

Bulkhead opened his door so June could get in the backseat with Raf and Jack and waited until everyone was at least sitting down before driving away.

June quickly put her seatbelt on while he drove and looked at each of the kids. "So, how was school?"

Raf shrugged "It was okay"

Jack looked out the window at the passing scenery "Same old, same old,"

Miko flopped back against the seat and threw her arms up dramatically shouting. "It was like prison!"

June smiled and took out her phone. "Uh, Miko, I got your message… mind explaining what this means?"

Miko shrugged. "I dunno. Silverbullet sent it to me a few minutes ago,"

June was confused "Who?"

Jack looked across Raf at his mom "Oh, that's right, you haven't met the two new bots,"

June looked back at him "I didn't know there were two new bots,"

"Yeah, the Autobots managed to get on the Decepticon's ship and found two bots in the brig... they're, um, kind of different from the others,"

When they got to the base, Bulkhead let all the humans out so he could drive up to the ground bridge to be bridged back to where the others were while Greenblades greeted the humans.

"Hello everyone," the kids all said hello on their way to the humans platform but June recoiled in slight fear of the strange mech, sometime the bots still made her nervous and this one just looked… feral compared to the others.

Greenblades saw this and crouched down to make himself appear less threatening. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you…" then he realized who he was speaking to. "June? June Darby?"

June looked up at him skeptically "How do you know my name?"

Greenblades projected his holoform behind her and tapped on her shoulder.

June whirled around and saw a tall young man with blonde hair and green eyes that looked very familiar as he held his hand out for her to shake. "Hi, I'm Victor Storm, I used to work with your husband Rod. Remember me? We met at the company picnic a few years ago,"

June thought about it and realized she had met this man before. "Oh Victor, nice to see you again," she shook his hand. "How did you find out about the…" she looked at him and then up at Greenblades and then it clicked, and she felt like a fool. "Oh,"

Greenblades deactivated his holoform and smiled down at her as his optics brightened once he was fully back in his real body. "My real name is Greenblades. How have you been these days?"

June smiled up at him "Fine, you?"

"No complaints I cannot handle on my own,"

"How's your wife? Or was that blonde woman that was with you before really your wife?"

Greenblades laughed softly "Yes, she really is my wife. Why don't you ask her yourself? She's been waiting for you and Miko in the kitchen area,"

June looked up at him questioningly and he pointed at Silverbullet's body. "Her real body is over there while she's in her holoform. Don't ask me what she's doing in there, when she swore me to secrecy she made me an offer I cannot refuse,"

June and Miko looked up at him to try to convince him to elaborate but he politely excused himself and went over to where Blaster and Ratchet were to ask if they heard anything else from the others so they went down to the kitchenette where Silverbullet's holoform was mixing some white powder—most likely some kind of flour mixture—in a bowl by turning the bowl in her hands in a sifting motion.

She looked up when she heard them come in and smiled at Miko "Hey, Miko-san," then she looked at June. "June Darby?"

June nodded "That's me, I'm guessing you're Silverbullet?"

Silverbullet nodded "That be I, How are you? I haven't seen you since Jack was a baby and he's almost an adult now, isn't he?"

Miko looked at her skeptically "Wait, you saw Jack as a baby?"

Silverbullet grinned "Yep, worked with his dad so not only did I see him when Rod brought Jack to work with him I saw every baby picture the man deemed fit to share with his co-workers. The image captures I managed to save will make excellent blackmail should there ever be need for such in the near or distant future,"

Miko shared her grin at the thought while June looked at what the Techno-dragoness-in-holoform was doing. "So what are you doing here?"

Silverbullet returned her attention to her little mixing bowl for a moment before looking up at them both. "I was actually working on a surprise for the guys when they get back but if you want to help you can,"

Miko eyed the two grocery bags sitting on the counter before going over to dig through them. "What kind of surprise?"

Silverbullet moved in a blur of speed and was suddenly beside Miko handing the girl a handwritten recipe card. June came over and read over her shoulder as she looked at it.

"Cherry pie?"

Silverbullet nodded "Yep, I'm baking it completely from scratch,"

June thought about it "I don't think I've ever baked it completely from scratch before…"

Miko shrugged "I don't think I've actually had it before,"

Silverbullet looked at them both before pointing at two chairs that were pulled up to the table. "Sit down and shut up because class is in session, ladies," they all started to move to their chairs before they remembered to wash their hands.

June looked at Silverbullet, who was getting a pack of butter out of one of the grocery bags and some kind of metal utensil that looked like a metal arch with slits in it that goes over the knuckles when someone holds the handle it is attached to. "Where did you get all of this?"

Silverbullet shrugged and brought a stick of butter and the utensil to the table and set them next to the mixing bowl. "Before we were captured by the 'Cons, Greenblades and I worked paying jobs, luckily the bank accounts we had our saved our funds under were still intact,"

The three of them were gathered around the table "Alright, I already put the flour and salt into the bowl and sifted it together, now we need to cut the butter into it," she held up the metal object in her hand. "This is a pastry cutter, this is what we will use for that,"

She opened the stick of butter into the flour mixture and showed them how to use the pastry cutter and let them each have a turn using it until the butter was cut into pea-sized pieces.

"Ok, now we just need to add some water until the flour is moist. How much water does the recipe say?"

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Sometime later, the Autobots all stepped out of the ground bridge and moved further into the room so Ratchet could shut the portal behind them. "Find anything?"

The others shook their helms and Bulkhead slumped. "No luck, the 'Cons were long gone by the time we got there,"

Miko came running into the room with sticky red stains on her hands. "Hey guys, thought I heard the ground bridge fire up. Where did you all go?"

Optimus went back to the terminal to resume decoding. "We returned to the scene where we had last seen the Nemesis to find if there was anything that would lead to their current destination,"

Miko groaned "Ah, I missed out again,"

Bulkhead looked down at Miko. "Miko, you weren't missing much, the 'Cons were gone and took everything with them so it was just a foggy little island,"

June came in wiping her hands on a rag "Besides, you aren't actually supposed to be going on those missions anyway,"

Miko pouted so Bulkhead tried to change the subject. "So, what have you been up to while we were gone?"

Miko smiled up at him. "We've been working on something for everybody. Silverbullet and Mrs. D. have been teaching me how to make…"

Silverbullet's frame suddenly came to life and she put a claw to her lip components. "Shh, it's supposed to be a surprise," She looked over at Arcee. "But if you want to help too, you are more than welcome to,"

Arcee held up her servos and shook her helm "Oh, no, I really shouldn't…"

Silverbullet got up and gently took her by the arm-servo and lead her to where everyone has been leaving their alt. modes when they used their holoforms in the base. "Ah come on, Arcee. You need some time with the girls, if you spend too much time with just mechs you might start to turn into one,"

Finally relenting, Arcee transformed and activated her holoform while Silverbullet did the same and looked up at the guys. "And just so we're clear, anyone with a Y-chromosome or mech coding is hereby banned from the kitchen area until we are through"

"What? Why?"

"Because you'll ruin the surprise," the four females went into the kitchenette and shut the door.

Once they were gone, Ratchet turned to Bumblebee. "Bumblebee, may I have a word with you in the med. bay?"

Bumblebee looked at Raf and shrugged before going over to the closed off portion of the med. bay as Ratchet requested. **(What's going on Ratchet?)**

Ratchet shrugged and went over to the med. berth Optimus had been working at earlier "Oh, nothing. Optimus just finished working on this…" he uncovered the object that was covered with a tarp. When Bumblebee saw it his optics widened.

"…this morning and I was just wondering if you wanted it installed now or…"

Bumblebee pounced on the nearest empty med. berth and lay on his back to quickly fumble with the metal plating around his neck in a rushed attempt to remove it.

"Alright, alright calm down. Let me get that for you…"

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In the kitchen

Silverbullet placed a data pad that contained music files on the counter and hooked it up to a small speaker devise. "Is it alright if we put some music on while we work?"

June nodded and set her rag on the counter before picking up a paring knife and grabbed a cherry out of a bowl. "Sure,"

Miko went over to see what was on the data pad "What kind of music do you have on this thing?"

Silverbullet steered her back to a chair next to the table "Good music, although a lot of it you've never heard of,"

Arcee looked over the three large bowls in the center of the table; one was full of cherries, one had a few cherry pits in it and the third had some cherry bits in it. "What are you guys doing in here?"

"Making cherry pie…"

"From scratch!"

"…Yes, thank you Miko, from scratch as a surprise for everyone," Silverbullet added "And to keep Miko occupied so she doesn't follow anyone through the bridge again,"

Arcee snorted with amusement and Miko wondered what her friend said. "What did you say?"

"I said we all do weird stuff when we're bored. Last night I had nothing to do so I snuck out and used my holoform to get a couple bags of cherries that were on sale at the supermarket which is open 24 hours so we could have something to do with just us girls,"

She offhandedly added under her breath "That cashier was surprisingly helpful for someone that was stuck at work at three in the morning,"

Arcee picked up a cherry and looked it over "So what am I supposed to do with this?"

June handed her an extra paring knife and grabbed a cherry for herself. "Here, I'll show you. Just cut the cherry in half going around the pit like this," Arcee copied what she was doing until she completed the cut.

"Okay, now twist the two halves apart so the pit is left in one side and the other one is empty. The empty one you throw in the bowl with the others and cut the pit out of the other half so it can be put with its other half and throw the pit in this other bowl here"

Arcee did as she asked before grabbing another cherry "Well, that was easy,"

Silverbullet smiled "Yeah, the cherries are the easy part, it's getting the pastry to turn out right that is difficult,"

After a moment of the music playing being the only noise in the room, June tried to start a conversation. "So, anything you girls want to talk about that you don't want to say in front of the boys?"

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While the girls were in the kitchen, some of the guys hovered outside the door to try to listen in but couldn't make out what they were saying.

Smokescreen, Wheeljack and Bulkhead heightened their audio receptors and placed their helms near the door to try to listen in while Jack stood off to the side and Tracks leaned against the wall in holoform.

Just as curious as the others were, Raf gave up on the show he was watching and came up to them "What are you guys doing out here?"

Smokescreen shushed him "Shh, Trying to hear, but they got music playing,"

Tracks pushed off of the wall and walked up to the door. "Times like this… screw subtlety!" he pounded his fist on the door and shouted. "Hey, what are you doing in there?"

While Smokescreen, Wheeljack and Bulkhead reeled away from the noise that hit their enhanced audio receptors, they heard Silverbullet's voice call from the other side of the door "Popping cherries!"

The bots all looked up the meaning to the phrase on the internet and the results they found made them blush.

Jack wasted no time bringing Raf back out into the main area, knowing from health class what that phrase meant. Then Tracks walked away rubbing his face muttering "That femme is out to get me, I swear,"

Smokescreen and Bulkhead also left and the ex-Wrecker dragged Wheeljack with him. The Wrecker wasn't too bothered by what just happened but the other two felt dirty and intrusive until they got to the main area and Blaster looked at them all and said "Wha'ever she said, she didn't mean it like that,"

They all looked at him with confusion. "What do you mean?"

Blaster chuckled "What Silverbullet said that's got y'all spooked has more than one meaning. They aint doing what she let you think they're doin' she jus' wanted ya to think that so y'all would go away,"

Overcome by curiosity, Smokescreen activated his holoform and went back down the hall where the kitchenette was.

Jack looked over at him "Smokescreen, where are you going?"

Smokescreen turned around to look at him while walking backwards. "I'm going to see what they're really doing,"

Raf knelt on the couch in the human area so he could see over the back of it. "But they told us not to go in there,"

Smokescreen smiled and held up a finger. "Actually they said they didn't want any guys in there. Thing is holoforms can be changed so I'm won't be going in as a guy…" they all watched as Smokescreen's holoform changed. When he was done he asked in a higher voice "How do I look?"

They all stared, none of them knew the holoforms could do that, and Jack covered the lower half of his face with his hand. "Um… fine?"

"Cool," The holoform gave him a thumbs-up and went down the hall.

Jack looked around and spotted a box of tissues on a table next to the couch. "Hey, Raf, could you hand me a few of those tissues?"

"Sure,"

When Jack sat down in the chair and wadded up the tissues Greenblades noticed redness around the teen's nose. "Um, Jack, you're bleeding,"

Raf looked and noticed too. "He's right, Jack, you're bleeding,"

"Uh huh," Jack pinched the tissues around his nose and wondered to himself, for the umpteenth time, how his life had gotten so strange.

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"Hey, how's it going in here?"

The four of them looked up to see a tall young woman that appeared to be of Asian descent except she had bright blue eyes and red hair which she had pulled back in a ponytail, wearing a blue t-shirt under a white-and-red plaid button up with white capris and sneakers.

Arcee narrowed her holoform's eyes at her suspiciously as she stood up, ready to fight. "Who are you?"

The girl smiled "It's me, Smokescreen. You said no guys were allowed in here, so I'm using a female holoform," Smokescreen gestured to the new form but then noticed the areas that had changed and, completely out of curiosity, cupped his/her breasts. "Huh, so this is what 'boobs' feel like,"

Miko giggled while Arcee face palmed and June just focused on cutting open the cherry she was holding so she could get the pit out.

Silverbullet shrugged and hooked her foot on an empty chair to swing it around the table and set it down. "Well, as long as you are in here, might as well have a seat,"

Smokescreen sat down and looked at the three bowls they had set out. "So what are you four really doing here?"

Silverbullet grabbed another cherry and cut around the circumference of it. "Blaster snitched, didn't he? Well, if you must know we are attempting to bake a cherry pie from scratch as a surprise for everyone as well as an excuse for some female bonding time…" she added in Cybertronian "And to distract Miko so she wouldn't follow you guys through the ground bridge again," before switching to English again "… like I told you guys before we were popping cherries, because the pitted seeds in the center are a choking hazard and just plain unappetizing,"

She finished the cut she was making and twisted the fruit open so she could show him the cherry pit left behind in one half and placed the cleaned one in the bowl set aside for the cherries that were already pitted and used the tip of her paring knife to pry the pit out of the other half to be tossed in the second bowl set aside for the pits.

Smokescreen asked if he/she could try and June got another knife out of the drawer for the female holoform to use.

"Other than that we've just been talking about girl things you would never understand,"

Smokescreen smiled "Hey, you never know, maybe by using a female holoform I'll be able to see things from a femme's perspective more,"

Miko perked up and looked at Smokescreen and Arcee's holoforms "Speaking of which, since you two are getting along so well lately, does this mean you're together now?"

Both of them blushed and Silverbullet nudged Miko with her elbow. "Miko-san, you can't just ask people that sort of thing. If they are it's their business, if they are not you will just make them feel bad,"

Miko looked sheepish and covered her mouth. "Oops, sorry,"

June noticed she was holding her knife a little too close to her face and carefully pulled her hand down "Don't hold the knife so close to your face, you might cut yourself,"

They all winced at the mention of Miko cutting herself and they all tried to change the subject but weren't sure what to say until Smokescreen recognized the song that was playing. "What song is this?"

Miko got up to check but June and Silverbullet both answered in unison without looking up. "Livin' on a prayer by Bon Jovi,"

Miko realized getting up was a wasted effort and sat back down. "Did you hear it on the radio?"

Smokescreen shook his/her head, ponytail brushing across his/her neck. "No, Jack played it on his… It was a little metal object that he blew into and it made noise. What was that thing called again? A Monica?"

Miko remembered Jack mentioning he knew how to play the harmonica when they first met the bots. "Oh, harmonica… Wait, he played this on that? When?"

"When we were hiding on that bluff by the freeway so I could scan my new V-mode; nothing good was coming by and we were both getting really bored so he got it out and played it,"

With the five of them working together they soon had the bag cleaned and ready for pie.

"Okay, now to make the filling. Now, where did that recipe card get to?" Silverbullet looked around and found it under an empty grocery bag. "Ah here it is. Add two cups of cherries to ¼ cup flour, ¾ cup sugar, two tablespoons of butter and a dash of salt, mix well and add to pie shell,"

After adjusting the measurements to compensate for the amount of cherries they had, they measured the dry ingredients and mixed it all into the bowl they had put the cleaned cherries into and divided the mixture between the two pie shells Silverbullet, June and Miko prepared beforehand. "Ok, now for the top crust. This is the tricky part,"

Smokescreen got up and washed his/her hands. "Do you still need help or is it alright if I go?"

Silverbullet rolled her eyes as she started mixing ingredients for the top crust. "Last I checked we weren't holding you prisoner or anything so you can leave anytime you wish," she spun around and pointed at him with the wooden spoon she was using. "Just don't tell anyone what the surprise is or no pie for you,"

"Yes ma'am," and with a salute, Smokescreen's holoform disappeared.

"Hey, Arcee, you want a turn with the pastry cutter?"

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Smokescreen transformed into robot mode and went to lean against the control console for the ground bridge, all possible places to sit were taken and Tracks was leaning against the doorframe to the hall way and leaning flat against the wall would hurt his doorwings.

Wheeljack looked over "So how'd it go, kid?"

Smokescreen just shrugged and leaned against the console "They're cooking something,"

Jack rolled his eyes, he had just gotten the nosebleed from earlier to stop, and said "Well, if they're in the kitchen they are either cooking something or gossiping or both. So…"

Greenblades called over "Silverbullet detests gossip, it just causes scores of unnecessary dramatics,"

Jack looked at him then back at Smokescreen. "Ok that rules that option out, Any idea what they're cooking?"

Smokescreen smirked and nodded "Yep"

They all waited a moment for him to continue. "Well, what is it?"

Smokescreen's smirk grew into a grin and he shook his helm. "Can't tell you,"

Bulkhead looked over at him. "Why not?"

The smirk disappeared "Because if I tell you I won't get any and whatever it is sounds good and I want some,"

Raf looked up at him with big brown eyes "We'd tell you if we knew,"

Smokescreen smiled again "I know… but you wouldn't have to because if I wanted to know that badly I'd go see for myself, which I did,"

Jack handed Raf a game controller and took one for himself. "Guess we're just going to have to wait and see then,"

Sometime later, Agent Fowler arrived and was as disgruntled as ever. "Alright, where are they?"

All of the Autobots gathered before the liaison, Arcee transformed into robot mode and Silverbullet stood from her meditative position just as Bumblebee and Ratchet came out of the med. bay.

Optimus Prime stood at the front. "Agent Fowler, direct as always. I believe you spoke to the newest additions to our fold over the communications relay,"

He gestured towards the Techno-dragons with one servo and Tracks with the other, the blue mech just nodded briskly while Greenblades bowed slightly and Silverbullet gave him a two fingered salute. "I think so, now who is who again?"

Silverbullet stepped up and made introductions "I am Silverbullet and this is my mate, Greenblades,"

Tracks took up a stance that looked like a combination between a soldier standing at attention and a model posing for a photo. "I'm Tracks, perhaps you have heard of me?"

Silverbullet face palmed, her claws leaving little scratches on her faceplates "No, Tracks, no one here has heard of you prior to actually meeting you in person," she grumbled to herself as she let her servo fall to her hip. "It still pisses me off that you did that way back when…"

Jack looked up at her "Did what way back when?"

Greenblades leaned over and said "We'll tell you later, right now we should focus on what Agent Fowler came here for,"

Agent Fowler cleared his throat "Actually, I was just asked by my superiors to meet you all in person and remind you that we need a thorough report by tomorrow morning,"

"Of course," Silverbullet helm finials—which actually looked like elf ears—twitched and she looked in the direction of the kitchenette. "Now that that is settled I believe it's time we got out that surprise we had for everyone," she looked at Agent Fowler next "Is it alright if everyone if Agent Fowler joins us for it?"

Optimus nodded "If Agent Fowler wishes to stay for this… surprise he is welcome to do so,"

Fowler looked up at them all skeptically "What is it?"

June crossed her arms and smiled at him "Cherry pie,"

Miko bounced up and down shouting "I'll get it! I'll get it!"

Jack and Raf watched her go before they looked up at the remaining three females that helped prepare the surprise pie. "Cherry pie, really?"

Silverbullet nodded "Yes, we thought everyone could use a treat and we needed something to do with just the girls…" She looked down the hall to make sure Miko was still gone before adding in a lowered voice "…and to distract Miko so she wouldn't try to sneak through the ground bridge again,"

Fowler clasped his hands together. "Well, if it's all the same to you guys…"

Blaster transformed and his holoform climbed out his open window. "C'mon, no reason Miko should hafta bring the pies out here when all the stuff is already in the kitchen,"

The others all activated their holoforms, and started to make their way towards the kitchen area but the Techno-dragons stopped them. "Wait here, we'll help bring pieces of pie out to everyone, it gets crowded in that room fairly easily,"

Once the two were gone, Fowler looked at all the holoforms skeptically as they all appeared. "I figured you guys could do that because I've seen Arcee's hologram, but how come I haven't seen the rest of you do it until now?"

Arcee rolled her eyes and leaned against her alt. mode "Ratchet's been tinkering,"

"So you guys can actually eat and all that like this?"

Ratchet nodded "Yes, we can. Our holoforms are infused with nanites which incinerate and food or drink substances our holoforms consume and converts the released energy into energon for our real bodies. The only reason I didn't try installing them into everyone sooner was because it actually took more energy to make them than the amount of energy they are able to convert for our Cybertronian frames,"

After a few minutes, Miko, Silverbullet and Greenblades came out, each holding a paper plate holding a slice of cherry pie in each hand with a fork pinned beneath their thumbs.

They passed the plates out before going back for more; Silverbullet handed one of the ones she was holding to Blaster while Greenblades made sure June and Jack each got a piece and Miko handed hers to Bulkhead and tried to hand the other one to Tracks but he declined and said "No thank you, why don't you see if anyone else wants some?" so she handed it to Raf and went to get more.

Arcee got up to go help "I'll help too,"

Silverbullet handed Arcee the other piece she was holding and made her sit back down on her alt. mode's seat "Sit, we already cut enough pieces so everyone can have one each so all we have to do is bring them out," she called over her shoulder as she walked away. "Everyone eat up, it's an insult to cooks to waste food and it's… well, just a waste,"

Those that already had pie started eating while the rest of it was brought out. On the second trip Greenblades gave a piece to Optimus—who politely said he was going to wait to make sure everyone got some before starting on his own—and the other to Agent Fowler while Miko gave a piece to Bumblebee and tried with Tracks again.

Again the blue mech declined so she looked at him like a kicked puppy and whimpered "First you almost shoot me, now you don't want any of this yummy pie I try to give you… What did I ever do to you?"

Tracks saw the look on her face and looked over to Bulkhead for help, only to see that not only was the ex-Wrecker scowling at him while angrily biting a bit of pie off his fork but Wheeljack was also glaring at him while Silverbullet handed him his own slice and Primus knows what that femme would do to him if she turned around and saw how upset her "little sister" was because of him.

Finally he looked back at Miko; he never had any patience for Younglings when they acted like little brats but how he hated seeing them upset. He held out his hand for the offered plate and tried his best to smile at her. "Thank you,"

Miko smiled at him and said "You're welcome" as she handed him his pie before trotting off to get some herself.

While this was going on, Fowler started a quiet conversation with Greenblades while the Techno-dragon's holoform was still close to him. "You're a lucky man,"

The blonde holoform smiled and looked over to where Silverbullet's holoform was handing Ratchet and Wheeljack their slices of pie. "I know," he looked back at Agent Fowler and saw he was also looking at his Bondmate's holoform. "But might I ask what prompted you to say so?"

Fowler nodded towards Silverbullet's holoform as she walked away to get another round of pie plates. "You have a wife any man would kill for; beautiful, a great cook…" he gestured to the pie in his hands. "…and from what I've seen with how she interacts with these kids she's good with them,"

Greenblades smile became a sad one when Fowler mentioned "kids" and the man noticed "Have you two thought of having any? Or can Cybertronians even have any?"

Greenblades nodded "Yes, we can… and we did have one at one point," the smile disappeared completely when he looked at the floor "Emphasis on did,"

Fowler took a moment to figure out why he would emphasize the past tense before his eyes widened and his face sobered. "I'm sorry,"

Greenblades quickly looked over his shoulder as if to make sure no one was listening before quietly shushing Fowler "Shh, don't let her hear you say that. She gets upset when people who had nothing to do with his death say they are sorry for it,"

"Why?"

Suddenly Silverbullet's holoform was next to her mate's. "Because it's like they are taking the blame for what those murderers did,"

She looked around and raised her voice back to normal levels and asked "Alright, who still hasn't got any?"

Smokescreen raised his hand "I haven't"

After a quick head count they saw everyone else already had some. "Alright, Miko just went to get hers so we just need to get some for Smokescreen and some for ourselves and I think we are good,"

After Miko came out with her pie and sat on the floor between Wheeljack and Bulkhead's alt. modes with their holoforms, Silverbullet and Greenblades came out, each with a plate in their hands.

Silverbullet handed the one she had to Smokescreen "Alright, Smokescreen, a deal is a deal. Here's your piece,"

"Thank you," Smokescreen took it and was about to take a bite when he noticed the plate Greenblades was holding had two pieces. "I thought you said we each get one. How come that plate has two pieces on it?"

Silverbullet and Greenblades sat next to each other on the ground and started eating. "Because we are sharing a plate, this way there will be less rubbish to throw away…"

Silverbullet snuggled into her mate's side and added to what he had been saying "…and this way we get snuggles while we eat,"

They all tucked in to their pie, which as it turned out was pretty good; the 'Bots' holoforms all started purring as they ate which the humans started to take notice of.

Miko looked at Bulkhead and Wheeljacks real bodies when she heard their engines rumbling and then at their holoforms which were purring like kittens in time with their engines' sounds. "Are you guys… purring?"

Wheeljack flicked his fork at her in playful irritation and mumbled around a mouthful of sugary cherries and pie crust. "Shu' up it'sh good,"

June looked over at him. "You know, it's rude to talk with your mouth full,"

Wheeljack swallowed and quipped "Well, excuse me if I've been living off of liquid fuel rations for the past few million years,"

June looked like she was torn between being offended by the Wrecker's attitude and wanting to apologize to him for sounding so inconsiderate towards what he and the other Autobots had been through in the war and just returned her attention towards her own plate.

Wheeljack childishly stuck his tongue out at her and resumed eating.

Over on the couch in the human's area, Raf looked up at Bumblebee's holoform sitting next to him. "Bee, you okay? You've been pretty quiet this whole time,"

Bumblebee set down his plate and gave Ratchet a meaningful look which made the medic remember something. "Oh, yes about that… We have a surprise for you all as well. Show them Bumblebee,"

They all looked at the yellow scout who transformed and, for the first time in vorns, started to fold back his battle mask. Only for it to get stuck with only a small gap in between. He tried again but it didn't work. "Crap, it's stuck," he tried to pry it apart with his servos.

Everyone gasped at the sound of his voice—more at the fact they could hear his voice—which sounded a lot like his holoform's voice only it held more clarity and more like a young adult rather than an old man with bronchitis.

Ratchet pulled him to the side. "Here, let me," he carefully pulled the pieces apart and once it got past the worn parts it slid away cleanly, revealing a mouth no one even remembered or knew the scout still had.

Bumblebee let out a sigh of relief. "Whew, Thanks Ratchet. You guys wouldn't believe how stuffy it gets in that thing,"

Raf ran up to his guardian. "'Bee, you can talk now!"

Bumblebee smiled and scooped up his charge "Sure can, buddy,"

Everyone else started to get over the initial shock, Miko blurted "Holy scrap, he has a mouth!"

Bumblebee looked over at her "Of course I have a mouth, Miko… and you'd better watch yours,"

"You just said 'crap' a minute ago,"

Fowler stood up and cleared his throat "Uh, sorry about the whole 'speaking bleep' comment a while back,"

Bumblebee shrugged "It's ok," he looked over at Jack. "Although… Jack a word?"

Jack set his plate down and brushed himself off. "Um, yeah, sure…" he followed Bumblebee down the hall where they stopped just out of sight from the others.

Once there Jack faced Bumblebee and held up his hands "So, what's up 'Bee?"

Bumblebee knelt down so he was more on Jack's level but he leaned forward as he did so, something Arcee did when she was pissed at him and was about to lecture him or just wanted to intimidate him, and Jack knew right away he was in trouble.

"I wanted to talk to you about something I should have talked to you about a long time ago. Remember when we raced against Vince in 'The Circuit'?"

Jack's shoulders slumped and he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, uh… sorry about that,"

Bumblebee smiled "Don't be sorry, It was actually kind of fun. Sure Knockout showed up but I would have done it anyway if you just asked,"

Jack looked up at him with confusion. "But I…"

Bumblebee held up a servo to silence him, smile gone. "But that just it, you didn't ask me, you asked Raf if you could borrow me, like I was some toy in his possession. That's what got me there,"

Jack saw how that made sense, he hadn't realize it at the time but the way he had worded it did sound like he thought Bumblebee was just something he could borrow if he just asked the boy that always translated for him. "Hey… I'm sorry about that. I really am. I promise it won't happen again,"

Bumblebee smiled at him and slowly rose to full height. "Kind of hard for that now, since I can talk again," he crossed his arm-servos "And if it does I'll just have to tell your mom,"

Jack held up his hands in surrender "I'll be good,"

The two of them went back out into the main area and Jack sat in his spot while Bumblebee transformed and projected his holoform to the spot he had been sitting next to Raf and resumed eating his pie as if nothing happened.

Until Smokescreen asked "What was that about?"

'Bee smirked as he fished a cherry out of the pie filling and balanced it on his fork. "Something I tried to talk to him about before. Unfortunately I can't repeat it because the event we were discussing was filed under 'Don't tell mom',"

This caught June's interest as she looked over at her son. "There's a file? Tell me Jack, what else do you have filed under 'Don't tell mom,'?"

Jacks eyes widened and he quickly crammed a full fork load of pie into his mouth and mumbled about how his mouth was full.

His mom wasn't fooled as she picked at her own food and said "We will discuss this later, Jackson,"

When they all finished eating and Fowler left, the bots all reverted back to their real bodies and went about their business. Wheeljack transformed so that he was kneeling next to Miko. "So, when did you want to start training, kid?"

Miko remembered Wheeljack said he was going to give her sniper training and bounced up to him "Right now, let's go!"

June looked up at him "What kind of training?"

Wheeljack shrugged "Sniper training, she seems to have a knack for getting in and out of places undetected and so we just need to teach her how to safely handle a gun and work on her aim and she's good to go,"

June looked upset but didn't have a chance to say anything because Silverbullet interjected "We were already teaching her basic self-defense back in Tokyo and I showed her how to shoot a gun way back when so she already has a head start,"

Jack looked over at Miko as he was making his way to the kitchenette to throw his plate away and put his fork away. "Miko knows how to shoot a gun? Now that's a scary thought,"

Greenblades looked over at him "We can teach you and Raf self-defense as well,"

Arcee put her servos on her hips "What, you don't think we do a good enough job protecting our charges?"

Silverbullet stepped so that she was facing Arcee and the hallway Jack had gone down was behind the shorter blue femme. "No, but you can't protect them from everything; other humans being the first thing that comes to mind there. Also, Arcee, I've heard you sometimes get… distracted when you are protecting Jack while in the heat of battle,"

"What do you mean?"

Silverbullet looked past Arcee when she heard someone coming down the hall "Oh, hey, Airachnid, when did you wake up,"

Without thinking, Arcee activated her blaster and whipped around to fire a shot, only to see Jack jumping out of the way and running to hide behind Smokescreen and Bumblebee.

"Hey, watch it!"

Arcee froze and looked at Jack then at her blasters, horrified at what she had almost done. She transformed her servos back to normal and rushed over to check on Jack. "Jack I… are you okay,"

Jack cautiously came out from behind the two mechs he had been hiding behind by walking between them. "Yeah, I'm fine. Should have known shit was about to get real when someone said 'Airachnid',"

Arcee then looked at Silverbullet "Wait, how do you know about Airachnid?"

Silverbullet crossed her arm-servos "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Jack got between the two femmes and jumped up and down to get their attention. "Hey, no need to fight. Airachnid's locked up in a stasis pod in a vault, she's not going anywhere and that's that,"

The conversation ended there for the time being.

Turns out that day was a Friday and there was a football game in town so, for reasons none of them could fathom, Miko thought it would be a good idea for all of them to go.

When she brought this idea up Jack face palmed "Miko, why do you want to go to the football game?"

Miko put a hand on her hip and rolled her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world "Because this way we can teach the 'Bots more about human culture and they can practice using their holoforms to blend in with regular humans. Duh!"

The others saw how that would make sense but Tracks and Wheeljack both had to leave before then, Optimus and Ratchet naturally turned down the offer and stayed at the base and Blaster had another gig he had to go to and was bridged to that location so that left the humans and their guardians along with the Techno-dragons' holoforms.

At seven o'clock that evening, June—who had the night off—and the kids all got into their guardians' alt. modes.

Miko looked out Bulkhead's open door at the Techno-dragons "How are you guys getting there? Need a ride?"

Silverbullet shook her helm "No thank you, we'll just run,"

"Run?"

"Yeah, like this," the two of them activated their holoforms and ran to the exit ramp, out of the base and back in again before anyone even knew they were gone. "You guys coming or what?"

Everyone else shrugged and left, the Autobots all drove into Jasper with the Techno-dragons' holoforms running alongside, keeping even pace with the four vehicles. One car ride later everyone was bundled up and trying to find a place to sit at the school's football field.

Jack, Arcee, Smokescreen, Raf and Bumblebee all sat on the bottom bench of the metal bleachers that were on the home team's side of the field while Bulkhead, Miko, Greenblades all preferred to sit on the grass next to it.

June and Silverbullet went to the concession stand and came back with five bags of popcorn so they all could share, Silverbullet brought two of the bags to the other three on the grass and sat next to her mate while June passed out two of the bags she had and kept one for her and Jack to share when she sat on the end next to him.

Finally, the game started and the players lined up to start the game and everyone stood for the national anthem—none of the Cybertronians understood this but they didn't argue—and then the game actually started.

As it turned out, Arcee and Smokescreen ended up sharing one of the bags of popcorn since they were sitting next to each other and Raf shared with Bumblebee since the boy was sitting next to his guardian who was on the end.

Curious to see what this "popcorn" was like, Arcee and Smokescreen both reached into the bag at the same time. They felt their hands brush together and started to pull away but stopped. They both agreed they would keep their budding relationship to themselves but as long as no one else saw… they felt around for each other's hands again and grabbed on, holding hands in the popcorn.

It was, for lack of better wording, rather corny but neither of them minded.

"Would one of you just grab some popcorn already? Some of us would like to watch the game without you kids fighting over the bag,"

They both quickly pulled their hands out, Smokescreen sent a few kernels flying as he did so while Arcee remembered to grab some popcorn to make it look like she was trying to grab some of the popcorn that was towards the bottom.

Smokescreen started to reach for the bag to actually grab some himself but froze when he recognized the voice of the rude man behind them. Growling, he slowly turned to look at the man that was missing about half his hair that was looking over the field critically.

Arcee noticed and whispered "Smokescreen, what's wrong?"

"That's Gary Mitchell sitting behind us,"

Arcee looked over at June who was staring straight ahead as if she hadn't just answered her question in a no-nonsense tone. "One of the guys that…"

June reached across Jack to nudge her arm to get her to stop talking "Just ignore him, he wouldn't dare try anything in front of all these people and you guys would just get in trouble with Optimus if you tried anything on him,"

Arcee held the bag of popcorn so Smokescreen could have some and the two of them focused on watching the game while closely watching their charges out of the corners of their eyes; until they realized they had no idea whatsoever what the game was about so they just pretended.

After a few minutes, someone tapped on June's shoulder, making her jump. "June?"

June turned to see who was talking to her and smiled at the woman with curly red hair. "Oh, hello Martha,"

Martha Mitchell smiled "How are you? I haven't seen you in a while,"

The two women got a conversation going as the game went on and the crowd cheered at appropriate intervals; Gary Mitchell being the loudest and most obnoxious and occasionally shouting insults at the referees and the opposing team.

The first quarter ended and the players all huddled together around their coaches while the cheerleaders came to stand in front of the crowd.

Arcee leaned over to whisper in Jack's ear "What are they doing?"

Jack whispered back "They're going to do a cheer, just like what they were doing over there during the first part of the game except they get the crowd involved between quarters. Just shout back at them when everyone else does,"

"Um… okay"

The cheerleaders all stood in formation and began the cheer, not everyone joined in but those that did were enthusiastic about it and once the Autobot's got the hang of it they were shouting louder than anyone else—even in holoform Cybertronians are capable of shouting louder than human vocal cords allow.—but they were startled when a few of the girls were lifted up and throw into the air and caught by the rest of the squad and they all ended up in a pose shouting the team's name, ending the cheer.

As they walked away to go back to their little section on the end of the field Arcee leaned over to talk to Jack again "So… That's cheerleading?"

Jack nodded, still staring at a certain red-head on the cheer squad. "Yep,"

The next quarter started and the game resumed. Jack noticed Vince was out on the field for this play and kept quiet, until close to half time when the boy was handed the ball and two guys from the other team tackled him so hard he flipped over and landed on his back the ground and a third one was added to the pile with Vince on the bottom.

Martha, June, the kids and the 'Bots all winced in sympathy as the referees and coaches came to untangle the pile and Jasper High's coach helped Vince to the bench and made him sit down.

Vince went reluctantly, dropping his helmet on the ground and putting his head in his hands.

Gary Mitchell frowned in his son's general direction before standing up and pulling his wife with him saying they were leaving.

Martha looked up at her husband "But the game isn't over yet,"

"It is for us, let's go," Gary stomped off the bleachers and marched up to the parking lot.

Martha looked at June apologetically. "Sorry, June, but apparently we need to leave,"

June looked at Gary and then back at Martha "Okay, drive safely,"

"We will, nice seeing you again," Martha waved as she walked away.

"Nice seeing you too," June waved back and slowly let her hand drop with a perplexed frown.

Jack looked at her once the Mitchells were gone. "They're seriously just going to leave without Vince in the middle of the game?"

Smokescreen leaned across Arcee to whisper "Why do you care? The guy is an aft,"

June gave him a sharp look "Because Jack and Vince used to be friends when they were little,"

Jack rolled his eyes "Yeah, until we both started high school, he became the star football player and I spent most of my time outside school at my job so he decided to act like an aft,"

June looked over at the bench Vince was sitting on. "Well, his car is here, so at least he has a ride home,"

Arcee closed her eyes so she could see what was happening close to her real body in the parking lot. "Actually, June, I think I know why he made Martha leave with him," she pointed to the parking lot and they saw two vehicles leaving instead of one. "He's making Martha drive their car so he can take Vince's,"

Jack looked at Vince, then out at the parking lot and back again before getting up. "I'll be right back," He walked towards the concession stand.

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Vince was glaring at the ground with frustration and shame when he heard someone call his name.

"Hey, Vince,"

Vince looked up to see Jack Darby standing at the edge of the players' box holding a Styrofoam cup with steam coming out of it. "Want some hot chocolate?"

Vince stared at him for a moment before slowly approaching the other teen, as if afraid he was going to throw the hot liquid on him.

Jack held out the cup and held up his other hand in surrender "Don't worry, I didn't do anything to it,"

Vince hesitated before reaching for the cup. "Thanks," then he noticed the bandages on Jack's hand. "The hell happened to you?"

Jack looked at his hand as if to check if the bandages were still there. "Burnt my hand at work, it'll heal. What about you, are you ok? You took a pretty bad hit out there,"

Vince took the cup. "Whatever," he took a sip and realized it had extra marshmallows in it, just how he liked it. He looked at Jack with a confused look on his face. "How did you…"

Jack smiled "I seem to recall you liked extra marshmallows and asked for some at the concession stand,"

Vince frowned and mumbled "Can't remember when my birthday is but you remember that…"

Jack frowned back at him. "What are you talking about?"

Vince snorted "A few years ago you didn't come to my birthday party. I figured you just couldn't make it but then you stopped coming over altogether and I thought you just didn't want to be friends anymore,"

Jack's shoulders slumped "You mean my dad left and mom had to get a job which meant I had no way of getting to your house and then you started acting like a jerk so I thought you didn't want anything to do with me,"

Vince was startled by this revelation "So, we spent the last the last few years hating each other for nothing?"

"Yeah, pretty much,"

The two were silent for a moment then…

"…the fuck?"

"I know,"

One of the other players came up and told Jack wasn't supposed to be in their box during the game—even though he wasn't in the box—so Jack had to leave.

He waved over his shoulder as he walked away. "See you later, Vince,"

"…Um Yeah, later Jack,"

Jack went back to where the others were sitting and sat in his now-cold spot on the bleachers. When he got there he looked around and noticed Miko was missing. "Hey, where did Miko get to?"

Arcee looked at the spot she was and then over to the small out building that acted as both the concession stand and the announcer's booth. "She's over there, talking to some boy," she looked over at the spot she was before again and smirked "Looks like someone's getting jealous…"

Jack looked at her "What do you mean?"

She looked past him meaningfully so Jack followed her line of sight and saw Bulkhead's holoform glaring in the direction of the shadow cast by the outbuilding where Miko was talking to some boy he had probably never seen before.

"Or maybe he's just making sure she's okay. Like how you sometimes stalk me to make sure I'm not getting into trouble,"

Arcee crossed her arms and pretended to scold him "I'm sorry, how did we meet again?"

Jack rubbed his face "for the thousandth time, I'm sorry. Please quit bringing that up,"

Suddenly, Miko came stomping back and stormed right past them, hesitating by Bulkhead's and the Techno-dragons' holoforms but continuing out to the parking lot.

Bulkhead got up and went after her followed by Silverbullet who gave her mate a quick kiss on the cheek as she stood up to run after the girl.

Jack watched her go and looked around. "Uh, what just happened?"

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Moments before,

Miko saw Jack get up and go towards the concession stand and realized she needed to use the little girl's room. "Uh, I'll be right back," she got up and walked away, knowing her companions were watching her walk away but didn't follow her; their sensors would be able to track her from where they were sitting.

Miko used one of the Port-a-potties behind the concession stand—wondering for the umpteenth time why people in America didn't have their toilets sunken into the ground like they did in Japan because guys always pee on the seats—and was on her way back to her spot when someone stepped in front of her.

"Hey, you're that Asian girl from homeroom, aren't you,"

Miko looked up and saw the tall boy with dark hair and brown eyes. "Yeah, what about it?"

The boy laughed. "Spunk, I like that. The name's Scott… Miko, right?"

Miko nodded but then froze up when he started to move closer until he had her backed against the wall and braced his arm against it next to her head. At close up she noticed he was… kind of cute.

But that went away when he suddenly kissed her. She resisted the urge to bite him and kick him in the groin but she shoved him away instead. "What the hell?"

He just smirked and held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry, babe, couldn't help myself, you're just that hot," he winked and walked away.

She looked around for something to hit him with but then she stopped and slowly brought her fingers to her lips. That was her first kiss… and he just said he kind of liked her.

She followed him to a group of boys that were standing next to another set of bleachers and was intent on questioning him but she heard one of the boys say "Hey, Scott, did you do it man?"

Scott laughed and slapped a high five with him. "Yeah, made out with that Asian chick, pay up,"

Miko froze; that guy just kissed her as part of a bet. Suddenly feeling sick, she stomped away from him and back to where she had been sitting with her guardian and her "big sister" and said "sister's" mate but seeing them looking so human suddenly didn't seem right; right then she wanted to be with them not their holograms so she ran out to the parking lot to look for Bulkhead's alt. mode.

Unfortunately, holoforms ran faster than humans so Bulkhead and Silverbullet caught up with her before she got far.

Silverbullet cut her off while Bulkhead came up behind her "Miko, what's wrong?"

Miko clenched her fists and rubbed her eyes furiously "Why are boys so stupid?"

Silverbullet looked up at Bulkhead while she put an arm around Miko and lead her to a nearby curb to sit. "Girl problem, I got this, shoo,"

Bulkhead just squared his shoulders and followed them over to the curb and sat on the other side of Miko. "Miko, what happened? Did that guy you were talking to hurt you?"

Miko shook her head and tried to get her lip to stop trembling. "No, he was just a jerk…"

Silverbullet pulled her into a protective hug and didn't let her pull away. "And what did the jerk do that has made you so upset?"

Miko gave up and buried her face into the holoform's rock hard shoulder and blurted out. "First he just came up to talk to me then he backed me against the wall and kissed me…"

Bulkhead looked about ready to go find the boy and beat his ass right then but Silverbullet shook her head and he let Miko continue. "…I-I followed him over to where his friends were to find out why he did that and I heard them say how they made a bet if he could get me to make out with him and he told them 'Yeah, I made out with the Asian chick, pay up',"

The two holoforms met glances and came to a mutual agreement.

"Scrap the aft?"

Silverbullet nodded. "Scrap the aft… after the game, it will be easier to make it look like an accident then,"

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After the game ended and all the players shook hands, all the spectators went to their vehicles, the visiting team went to their bus and the home team went into the school to the locker room.

Out in the parking lot, Jack climbed aboard Arcee's alt. mode behind her holoform and was about to put his helmet on when he saw Vince come outside to heft his duffel bag onto his shoulder and walk away from the school.

Knowing it would be a long walk home for his former friend, he looked down at Arcee "Um… Arcee?"

Seeming to already know what her charge was thinking, the blue motorcycle was quick to respond. "No. Way. In. Hell!"

Jack pleaded "Ah come on…"

Arcee cut him off and pulled her holoform's helmet off to look at him "Do I have the word 'taxi service' written on my forehead?"

Jack rubbed his face with his hand "Arcee, I know Vince is an aft, but even he doesn't deserve to be stranded like that,"

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that," they both looked up to see Smokescreen's holoform standing next to them with his hands in his pockets. He pulled one hand free to point over to where two young adults with blonde hair—a man and a woman—came up alongside Vince and were walking away with him.

"Silverbullet and Greenblades can make sure he gets home safely so it's not our problem," The holoform whispered to Arcee in Cybertronian "Meet me on the roof of the base after everyone else is out for the night,"

Before Arcee could ask why he would ask that he had already walked away and went back to his alt. mode where June was getting in on the passenger side and slid across his own hood like "Dukes of Hazzard" and got in on the driver's side before driving away.

While the other bots followed suit, Arcee contacted Smokescreen through the internal comm. links. :Smokescreen, why did you want to meet on the roof tonight?:

He merely sent back with a tone that sounded as though his optics would have been sparkling with mischief had he been in robot mode. :It's a surprise.:

Arcee groaned with exasperation :I hate surprises, can't you just tell me?:

:Arcee, what… *ksh*… you say? *Ksh* an't *ksh* -r you… *Ksh* Going into a tunnel. *Ksh*:

:…Smokescreen, I CAN SEE YOU! There aren't any tunnels for miles.:The connection cut off with a click. :Smokescreen? Hello? Hello?:

Arcee gave up and focused on getting Jack home safely so she could get back to base and figure out what Smokescreen had planned.

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Vince was the first one out and looked around for his car, to his chagrin his folks had taken it with them when they left which left him the option of catching a ride with his buddies or walking.

Since all of his so called "friends" would only laugh at him for his performance that night—the only one that didn't seem to be hating his guts right then was Jack Darby and after all the bullying he gave the raven haired teen the past few years he wasn't going to seek any pity from him—it looked like he had a long walk home ahead of him.

He hefted his duffel bag onto his shoulder—thankfully he just had to take his uniform and that weekend's homework home with him that night so it wasn't as heavy as it was on day he had to take his pads home too—and walked away from the school.

He didn't even notice two figures come up alongside him until one of them, a young woman, spoke to him "Hey, which way are you heading?"

He looked up at them, the woman looked familiar but he couldn't figure out how he would know her. "Why?"

The two of them looked at each other for a moment then back at him and shrugged "Safety in numbers. We figured if we're going the same way we could walk with you for a while… and you looked like you could use the company,"

Vince thought about it and shrugged "Why not, not my sidewalk,"

The three of them walked in silence for a moment before the woman spoke up again. "Thanks for the cherries, by the way,"

Vince looked at her strangely for a moment before his eyes widened in recognition and he looked away. "Uh, sure… What did you need all those cherries for anyway? There was enough there to feed an army,"

The two smiled like he just walked in on an inside joke and didn't realize it before the three of them kept on walking in relative silence, only talking enough to keep the silence from becoming the awkward kind.

"So, do you have to work again tonight?"

Vince shook his head. "No, I don't work weekends. Besides I just work there because my old man caught me street racing and thought if I had a job I would stay out of trouble,"

"Is it working?"

Vine looked up at the man who had spoken that time and tried to figure out where the hell they got their accent from before shrugging and changing the subject. "Saw you two sitting with Darby and his pals tonight. How do you know them?"

They quickly whipped up a half-truth to courteously answer the teen's question and to avoid suspicion. "Used to work with his dad in a special ops. unit until he went missing, he wasn't allowed to tell them about the missions he went on so everyone out of the know just assumed he up and left. The rest of the unit disbanded shortly after that.

"We were caught by some organization that was after something we were assigned to guard as well as secrets from the old unit and were basically prisoners of war until another unit, the one Jack's cousin Sadie and her friends are part of, freed us and we were allotted some recuperative down time. Since we will be transferred to their unit and the ones you saw tonight are also off duty we are all renting a place here in town, though Sadie usually stays with her relatives,"

Thankfully the boy bought it and the rest of the walk was silent.

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After their guardians dropped them off at home, Jack and June went inside to get ready for bed. Smokescreen took off as soon as the humans were inside but Arcee stayed until all the lights in the house were shut off and her scanners told her there were no possible threats in the neighborhood.

By the time she got back to the base Optimus and Ratchet were on their way to their quarters for recharge. None of them said a word to each other as the two mechs nodded in greeting which she returned before going to their quarters while Arcee took the lift up to the roof.

Once she got up there she looked around for the red-white-and-blue Praxian but didn't see him right away.

The sound of a lighter clicking and a small flash of light drew her attention to a spot close to the edge that over-looked the entire desert. It turned out to be Smokescreen lighting a Cybertronian-sized lantern, Arcee came closer and saw he had also spread a blanket out on the ground with a plate of energon goodies set in the middle of it.

"What is all this?"

Smokescreen folded his tiny lighting torch back into his finger after blowing the flame out. "It's called a picnic,"

Arcee rolled her optics and sat down across from him "I know that, but where did you get all of this?"

Smokescreen waved a servo over the items set on the ground. "Found the lantern in storage, the energon goodies I got from Silverbullet after getting Bumblebee to help convince her to prepare a batch—the mech is really good at the "turbo-puppy optics"—and the blanket was the one I was using when I was recharging on the floor so I didn't have to recharge in a berth that was still considered Cliffjumper's,"

Suddenly, Arcee's lip component quivered and she threw her arm-servos around Smokescreen and she started to cry. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry,"

Smokescreen hugged her back "For what?"

"F-for being such a… a glitch before, I just didn't want you getting hurt because of me,"

Smokescreen hugged her tighter. "Arcee…"

Arcee sat up and looked off to the side. "Tailgate… the only reason he went offline was because I fell behind and he waited for me so we both got captured by Airachnid and she killed him to get me to talk because nothing she did to me was working. Cliffjumper… Starscream killed him because I couldn't get him any back up in time and was too slow to get there myself,"

She stopped to wipe coolant off the corners of her optics "I don't even want to count how many times we almost lost Jack because I didn't do a good enough job protecting him…"

Smokescreen reached up and gently cupped her face in his servos. "Arcee look at me…" she did so he continued "I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere and no 'Con is going to take me away from you,"

Arcee looked like she wanted to believe that but… "That's what Tailgate said,"

Smokescreen smirked "Well, I'm not Tailgate,"

"That's what Cliffjumper said,"

Smokescreen looked at her and spoke in an almost-warning tone if it didn't have a teasing edge to it. "Lioness…"

Arcee looked up at him "What did you call me?"

Smokescreen pulled back and rubbed the back of his helm. "Sorry, I was watching a show about some lions a while back and the lionesses reminded me of you… I thought it would be a good nickname for you,"

Arcee thought about it and laughed "No fair, you came up with a nickname for me and the only one I can think of is 'Smokey Bear' after that cartoon character that tells humans not to play with fire,"

Smokescreen smiled at her and handed her an energon goodie before taking one for himself. "'Smokey' is fine,"

Arcee took a bite of her treat. "I thought you hated being called that?"

Smokescreen shrugged and bit into his own goodie while leaning back to look up at the stars. "Only because I feel like a Youngling that did something wrong because the only time I've been called that was when I was a sparkling, when my brother and Sire treat me like a sparkling, and whenever my Carrier was getting after me for something and didn't want me to realize I was in trouble and try to get away from whatever punishment he had in mind,"

He smiled at her "I can make an exception for you,"

They both lay on their backs and looked up at the stars, eating energon goodies off the plate between them and savoring the taste while they located their home star that pointed out where Cybertron was.

When they both reached for the same energon goodie at the same time without looking and their servos brushed together and they hesitated. Then Smokescreen grabbed Arcee's servo and waited to see what would happen; either she would hold his servo too or she would pull hers back and possibly smack him with it.

To his relief her digits curled around his and they lie there holding servos until a cloud blocked out the star they were looking at and they both sat up and looked out at the moonlit desert.

The silence was starting to get awkward so Arcee broke it. "Nice night out,"

Smokescreen nodded and kept his servo curled in the position it had been in when they were holding servos despite the fact they had separated in order to sit up. "Yeah, I originally planned this so we would be out here to watch the sunset too, but we were at the game when that happened so we missed it,"

"Don't worry about it. This is fine,"

After another silence, Smokescreen hesitantly asked "So… Arcee, tell me about yourself,"

Arcee brought her knees to her chest and rest her chin on them. "Well, like I said before I have two sisters; Chromia who is older than I am and Flare up who is the youngest. I'm sure you met Chromia since she helped with training recruits at the Academy. I didn't go because it was my turn to look after Flare up at the time. Flare was a sweet little ball of energy, kind of like Miko except she didn't knowingly look for trouble she just happened to get into it a lot like sparklings do,"

Immediately Smokescreen wondered why Arcee would have to look after her sister. "What about your Creators?"

Arcee knew why he asked that but pretended to think he just wanted to know about them. "My Sire was a soldier, from what I heard he was the one that always rushed into things without being ordered to, he even charged ahead when he was actually ordered not to because he didn't want to waste time thinking of a plan when the enemy was right in front of him,"

She picked up an energon goodie and examined it. "Carrier was a Courier that was also involved in speed racing, and he was good at it too. "The fastest car on wheels" they called him, but eventually he had to stop racing because he couldn't race while Carrying and when he tried to go back to it after he had Chromia he started racing less and less until he stopped completely when he found out he was Carrying Flare up,"

Arcee slumped forward "The last time I saw them was right after you left. After the 'Cons took out Praxus they went after surrounding cities. Including the one I lived in. One of the bombs they used caused the supports in our house to give out. Sire pushed me and my sisters out of a window and told us to go across the street and that he and Carrier will meet us there. But then the building collapsed the rest of the way,"

Smokescreen was at a loss for words, trying to picture how that must have been for her at such a young age. "Primus…"

Arcee threw her energon goodie back down, suddenly not interested in it, and continued. "We ran back across the street to see if they would come out of the rubble but some mech grabbed us and took us away from there. We struggled at first but we never went back. We stayed with an old friend of the family until we were old enough to get jobs and move out on our own.

Chromia went to the Elite Academy and eventually Bonded with Ironhide and became the Weapons Specialist for a unit that Flare up also joined so they could be close, but I haven't seen either of them since the Exodus. I was originally planning on becoming a teacher but when the war started I became a soldier, like pretty much everyone else. I think you can figure out the rest,"

Smokescreen was quiet for a moment before he picked up the treat she had thrown down and handed it back to her with a reassuring smile. "Well, look at it this way, we've got almost all the Iacon relics, we just need to find the Skyboom Shield and get the Requiem Blaster back from Megatron and we can end the war with them. Once the war's over we can go back to Cybertron and start rebuilding and hopefully find the others that are out there,"

Arcee took the goodie from him with a thankful smile and watched him take another one for himself. "How are you always so optimistic?"

Smokescreen shrugged with a smirk "I'm just that good, I guess,"

The two of them talked some more until the goodies were all gone and Arcee doused the lantern while Smokescreen packed everything else back into his subspace and the two of them rode the lift back down into the base.

On the way down, Arcee looked up at Smokescreen "Thanks for tonight,"

Smokescreen smiled down at her "You're welcome,"

The two of them looked straight ahead when the lift came to a stop but just before they actually got off Arcee said "Alright if I pick what we do next time?"

Smokescreen looked at her, surprised "You mean…"

Arcee nodded "Yeah, that's usually what 'next time' means,"

As she walked away, Smokescreen put his servos together and mouthed the words "Thank you, Primus" at the ceiling, then quickly recovered himself and answered coolly "Sure, that's fine with me,"

After they put the lantern away they went back to the Darby's place and pulled into the garage around one in the morning and powered down for a night's recharge.

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Meanwhile, miles away in the Harbinger

Starscream knelt down next to the ship's energon processor, waiting for his red energon to finish.

He tapped his claws against the machine impatiently. "Come on, come on. It's been months now… why is it that speed energon processes so slowly?"

The crystalized chunk he had grabbed while fleeing from the Autobots after a scrimmage for a whole crate of the stuff was almost as big as he was and after all the time it was in the processor there was only a small puddle in the bottom of the canister.

With a huff he pushed away from the dispenser and went over to a container of already processed regular energon and helped himself "Well, all this waiting might have been worth it if it was the entire score of red energon, but in the meantime I can't use the processor for regular fuel. Good thing I processed some beforehand…"

While he sipped his blue energon—savoring it to try to make it last because he hadn't been able to find much—he plotted what he was going to do.

"I will have my revenge on those fools I once served alongside, especially Megatron. But first I will deal with the Autobots, starting with Prime," Starscream thought about it. "Hmm, maybe I'll save him for last and deal with the other Autobots first. Maybe that meddling scout that got my T-cog taken away… or that new recruit that robbed me of my Apex Armor,"

Starscream mumbled to himself about his plans for revenge, missing the days when he had someone to brag about his plans and accomplishments to.

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AN: Hey, everyone. sorry this took so long, not only did it take a while to edit I was waiting to see if S.O.P.A. was going to make fanfiction part of a felony or not. Don't worry, it's safe now and I've already got the next chapter halfway done so that should be up soon, baring any further incidence.

Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and added; Speedstreak360, Amia725, kaleia (Guest), Kara (Guest), beauty1564, Bigby the Big Bad Wolf, Bossbot97, Scarlet Thorrn, nikesilvermoon, SS (Guest)