*A Day At The Fair*

*

Later during the week at the local fair before the event had started. The military had upgraded its security status when they arrived with their special cargo.

They had not intended to be showing off their newest top secret project to the general public, but it was the Presidents' idea and so they acceded to follow orders.

But what got their attention even more was that they saw Adam Drake had set up his own area with mecha units already.

This irks General Price somewhat as he had accompanied his group here today under the supervision of a team of security agents from E.D.C that had recently transferred to the base during the week for their new assignment. He did not know where Adam Drake had gotten the other mecha units from, but he surmised that the businessman had made use of his vast financial funds to make them. But where, he didn't know, as Adam had spent most of his time during the construction of the Military mecha units at the Port Angeles Military Installation. And only recently he had left the company of the military base to return to his business or so they thought.

'How dare he undermine us like this!' Thinks the General. 'If he went and built his own mecha units then why in the hell did he get us to build our units?' He gets even more annoyed when he spots his daughter up upon one of the machines with another technician checking it out. He leaves his group to set up their area while he and his new off - sider walk hurriedly over to Adam's mecha units to see the General's daughter.

General Price had noticed that Adam and his group had set up three units. None of them were like the ones that he had built for them, they weren't as big but they did look stronger, and better armoured though.

He looks up to where his daughter is.

"Oh, hey Daddy!" Calls out Alexandra.

The General calls back, "Ally please get down from there, it's not safe."

"Oh Dad please I'm fine, It's perfectly...!" She yelps as she slips but is grabbed by the wrist of Dr. Jackson Wheeler who was with her at the time. He happened to be showing Alex' some tech systems.

The General does notice the Professor and wonders why he is here after he had been helping the Military at their base with their mechs. But for now, he can only put his hands on his hips and shake his head.

"I was going to say 'safe', but was cut off by my almost falling!" Alex' replies when she gets down to the ground and has to face her father.

"Now don't make me say I told you so." He states calmly.

"It wouldn't matter Daddy, you would say it anyway, you wouldn't be able to help yourself!" Comes the smart assed comment from his daughter, a little vehemence in her voice due to her father being an overbearing control freak at times who worried too much.

The General sighs again and turns around to walk away back to the Military's area for the fair and leaves his daughter and Adam Drake's area to themselves.

"So that's your daughter?" Asks his companion Marissa on the way back.

"Yes." He replies flatly.

"Hmmm." Thinks Marissa, "Reminds me of her mother!"

"Yes very." Came the somewhat amused reply.

When they arrive back at their area to continue the set up, Marissa states, "I hope some Autobots get a chance to show up for the fair, I haven't seen a fair few of my old friends in ages.

The General was none fussed about the E.D.C. Commander's comment and goes into to his makeshift office

*

A few days later at the fair, it was the middle of the second day and the crowds were overwhelming.

Many had come in response to a rumour that the Military would be adding a secret project at the last second and revealing it to the public.

Some had also come in response to the engineer, Adam Drake's announcement that he would have his own private project to show off and let the general public get a close up look and see for themselves as usual, whereas General Price's project was off limits and people could only look from gangplanks surrounding the units. Adam let people sit in and see inside his units. Needles to say the line up at his hangar was longer and more crowded than the Military's one.

And General Price was slightly peeved. The reason he was asked to come to the technology Fair was to show the public what the military now had to offer and get people to sign up and join. It worked but only to a degree.

Adam Drake had upstaged their presentation and taken away their limelight, and the General felt that their presence here today was somewhat diminished. But it wasn't a complete failure. At least not yet.

Elsewhere at the fair, the Spyhunters were putting on a stunt show on the main area of tarmac. This place was an old airport at some stage and was perfect for jets and pilots to do stunt shows, making use of the runways, but for now the runway was being used by cars.

As far as the general public knew, the Spyhunter's were just a bunch of stunt drivers. All of the cars utilised holographic simulators to appear as if they had drivers. But none knew they were actually Transformers. They had been called in by Ella to attend in order to take a break from their work in Britain.

Elsewhere, some of the Roughnecks members were looking on. One in particular, was Sound Track, who was eager to participate, but instead just watched from the sidelines for now. She was looking on in her Biomode, and was right now thinking to herself.

She was getting a might anxious about having her main power core back and although she trusted Ella's judgement in the matter to let the Matrice be for now, she was worried about what was going to happen with it, she wasn't a clairvoyant like her sister was, only a telepath, but even that didn't help her. She still retained some sort of connection to it and knew that the Decepticons and Decellion's scientists had not yet been able to do anything with it, but it didn't stop her from worrying.

Unlike the Cybertronian Prime, any female who bears a Matrice is automatically able to sense the deep seated spirit within the core of the Matrice device itself. In Sound Track's case, she could vaguely feel the consciousness of the blue dragon within the Matrice she was assigned to be the guardian of.

She was kind of glad that Ella had told her of Nova's plan to retrieve the stolen Matrices from Decellion, by sending in Bonecrushers troops along with her, as well as the Autobots' team, the Dinobots. But so far they had been unsuccessful in getting anything back from them.

Ella had sidled up behind Sound Track's Biomode as her human face of Desonia Lanzig, and asked, referring to the stunt show, "Well if you want to have a go I'm sure we can arrange something, after all, Jazz and some of his team are here too. I'm sure they'd love to have some fun too."

Sound Track just smirks at the comment when she realises the energy signatures of her new Autobot companions show up in the area on her scanners, and Ella needs no response to know what the smirk on Desonia's faceplate means.

*

The Aerialbots had agreed to attend the day's events at Jazz's request, being that Jazz thought a day out for rest and relaxation might help to soothe some battle weary circuits amongst the mechs under his command here on Earth for a little while. A few of the other general soldiers had come along also.

The Aerialbots were enjoying their air display immensely.

And Jazz had just joined Sound Track to watch the other Autobots having fun around various areas of the fair, hoping to Primus that the twins were staying out of trouble, wherever they were.

On the way over to sit with Sound Track, He switches to his Pretender shell and Jazz looks around at all the stalls here today and wonders to himself. 'Not tha kind of advanced tech we're used ta but...But I guess it's tha best they can do for now!' He thinks.

Over at the Military Stand, Marissa Fairborn had just finished her morning security shift of guarding the mechs at the Military pavilion when she spots an old friend, namely Jazz, on the other side of the fair compound talking with an African American woman she thought for a moment was a singer from an old rock band. Marissa knew the face of Jazz's human form very well.

'It would figure it was her if that's who Jazz is talking to, he does love music and she is a musician and a singer!' She felt a slight pang of jealousy at Jazz spending time with another female besides herself.

But she didn't know about Desonia's true form.

Marissa had, for a very long time, had somewhat of a crush on the mech. She couldn't help it, and she supposed she wouldn't have been the only adoring human female in the world to notice that Jazz is so easy to get along with, easy on the eye and so very human in his personal mannerisms.

Over at the Military's pavilion, they had announced that they were taking their mecha out and conducting a demonstration.

What they had done today was bring two aerial combat units for a mock fight in the skies over the old base being used for the fair.

'Figures!' Ella thinks to herself, as she was close by the pavilion when the announcement went off.

She radioed two mecha that she was holding in reserve to catch the Military off guard just to see how used to the new units the pilots were. And also to give the crowd a little entertainment.

There was a moment of oohs and ahhhs out on the tarmac as everyone who could see watched the Military jet mecha combat units transform to their jet modes and take off to start their aerial manoeuvres.

*

"I do not see why we have to do this? These humans are pathetic and so are any technology they make for themselves." Whines a male.

"Remember thet these mecha units were built by Edem Dreke, Comrede." Replies a female.

The male remembers that Adam is Ella's son and has a lot of resources and power at his disposal and so shuts up and does not continue his verbal tirade.

*

Ella had planned for two of her own jets to swoop in as they were doing their show and make them think her two wingers were a real threat.

Off in the distance she saw a familiar F-15 Eagle jet painted in familiar colours with a Decepticon emblem. That was Starscream. Ella had shown him how to morph his robotic mode from his Cybertronian jet mode to his old Earth jet mode and he was given instructions to flank the Military jet mecha's and only out – manoeuvre them but not destroy or damage the units.

He was too gleeful at accepting this idea. He had wanted a chance to cut loose and issue some payback towards the Military for all those years of shooting bullets at him and scratching his Cybertronian paintwork way back when he was at war with Earth and its Government's under Megatron's leadership as the Decepticon Air Commander. But now he had just have to settle for the fact he felt superior to the humans and their mecha jets in every which way. At least he would have the chance to show it...

Ella just hoped he would actually listen and follow her idea, for once, as he was notorious for making his own plans and going his own way. But he was not having a choice now as his new collar was much stronger than the last one and he couldn't help but behave for most of the time.

And that was why she had Freefall there with him, watching his every move and ensuring Starscream didn't get out of hand or go AWOL on them, just in case.

Starscream did several expert manoeuvres in the air around the two mecha in the hopes of getting the pilots to beak formation and follow.

The crowd, having seen both the Military and the Drake Corp units, just thought it was all part of a co – operative demonstration.

On the ground, the Military unit was in a state of defensive urgency, watching the jets up above. General Price had seen Starscream up above and was watching the warrior intently. Because of the former Decepticons reputation preceding him, the orders issued were to capture the two rogue mecha plaguing the Military units

They had not yet issued a warning to evacuate the fair as Starscream had yet to fire on the crowd or any surroundings and this unsettled them a bit, not knowing what he was going to do.

But they hadn't seen Freefall yet. She was still waiting close by for her turn to join the fray.

When the pilots had received their orders to pursue Starscream, they did so, but were taken aback when Freefall joined in. Even though she no longer had her dragon alternate mode, she could still manoeuvre just as well in her Deltronian Jet mode.

But they didn't know who she was and so assumed she was another Decepticon Jet.

They fired on her too, but could not make their ammunition hit their mark. They same was to be said for Starscream.

Both of them skilfully dodged the Military and also Autobot jets that had joined in. And after a solid half hour or so got away from the group of seven jets and found themselves a secluded area to land and transform in. They transformed back to their robot modes when they touched down, and then quickly back to their human Biomodes. They found their way back to the fair, not to far from where Ella was standing.

Both of the mecha quickly blended in with the crowd. Freefall was grateful that when Ella made Starscream's new collar that she didn't have to visually sparksit him all the time. She could track him anywhere now and not worry about where he had gotten to. So she went her own way into the crowd and let him go his.

Ella spotted Starscream in his Biomode not too far away from where she was and walked over to him. He wasn't at all bothered by her just standing next to him.

He had his thoughts elsewhere for now. To Starscream, it was still unknown to him as to why he had stayed on Earth, when he knew he could be off world taking his revenge on Galvetron, but it just didn't seem to be important to him anymore.

He had since discovered Ella had him repaired using her own blood fuel, a black techno-organic liquid called Psion, making him very different than he was before. He felt nobler and less like his old Decepticon self, which often annoyed him to no end, as he felt less able to express himself as he thought he had the right to be. The black blood in his system endeavoured to suppress his darker side to the point where it equally balanced the good side in him that he always tried to unsuccessfully suppress himself. He was quite sure about how much Ella could feel the loathing he had for and what she had done to him right now.

Ella thought about the other Decepticons for a moment. She didn't come across many in the Delta system, not many who were game to wear the Cybertronian insignia that is.

There were many mechs who, at one stage, were Decepticons, but had since removed their old insignia so they couldn't be found by other Cybertronian authorities. But they all seemed to congregate in the Delta system as hardly any Cybertronians came there. Many had now accepted the insignia that most Deltronians used that was a combination of the two factions of both sides in appearance.

Once, a long time ago, many proudly displayed an homage to the Decepticon ideals and history but because of the trouble that it caused in allowing them free reign, had all had to be registered to keep them under control, unless they were incarcerated or living on Delta Six, where most of them were unregistered or in hiding from the Alliance Security Forces.

Some Decepticons she had also taken under her wing after that.

But most were now kept to the Delta system, more specifically Delta Six and barely showed their faceplates anywhere else within the Alliance now, unless they were a high rank of some kind in the government or military, or were working under a caretaker like Ella.

Freefall had turned up behind Starscream and Ella and looked on as the other two were watching the Military pavilion.

Ella asks Freefall, "Interesting display you showed, but perhaps you could go and show these other jets how to fly properly eh?"

"Da comrede." Is all she says in her Russian accent.

While Starscream thinks to himself about how he could show them all up, feeling proud about his supreme flying skills.

The Aerialbots had landed not too far away, transforming into their robot modes amidst the applause of the crowd. The human's military jets coming in via the runway close by. But neither group could find where Starscream and the other jet had gone.

Ella smiles as another idea forms in her mind, "Perhaps Starscream should revert back to his robot mode and join you in an air challenge Freefall?"

Freefall bursts out laughing. "You, comrede, expect him..." Pointing to Starscream in his Biomode, who had lifted his head at the mention of his name, "To be eble beat me in air chellenge?" Freefall's Russian type accent didn't show as much in her robot mode as it did in her Biomode, but it was still evident nonetheless. "Very well comrade." She concedes. She crosses her arms. "I eccept your chellenge!"

She quietly waits for Starscream to accept, which he does and then they wander off to find a safe place to shift out of their Biomodes and into their robot modes again. When Freefall is done, she then quickly transforms and takes off, and accelerates into the sky, with Starscream not far behind.

Ella turns to Jazz and a couple of the other Autobots who had been watching them, and asks, "Go and keep your optics on this because you're going to want to get a visual on this battle!" They then wander over to the Drake Corp Pavilion and watch the screens.

As soon as the Aerialbots discover the appearance of the two jets again, they take off after them into the air.

Meanwhile Marissa has finally caught up with them having to fight through the immense crowds to get to Jazz and his friends who had now gathered mostly in one spot, she breathes a sigh of relief.

*

Freefall had contacted Flashdance who was close by to Ella by that time, and projected the images onto a giant television screen by attaching herself to it with some cables. This attracted the attention of the humans near the screen, thinking it was some kind of air race and so came and watched the giant screen curiously.

The other Autobots who weren't with Sound Track and some of the other members of the Roughnecks, enjoying themselves in a stunt show, were also watching the screen close by. Jazz and Bumblebee, in their Pretender shells had joined Ella and the group not long after the jets had taken off.

Bumblebee commented "Look at her go. She makes Starscream look like an amateur!"

Jazz exclaims jokingly "Yeah, finally good to see that over inflated air head way outta his league!"

Bumblebee just looks at Jazz; he had obviously decided not to hide the enmity he felt towards Starscream, due to his past dealings with him.

"Aw, c'mon Bee, it's not like I'm not tryin' ta be nice ta him. He was our enemy for ages and I'm one ta believe that he's one mech who'll never change his spots, so ta speak."

"But you changed." Jazz couldn't wipe the look of surprise from his face. "You're probably wondering how I knew about that right? Well Ironhide wasn't exactly all that quiet on some of our drinking nights, and now was Kup either."

"Oh well!" Sighs Jazz, "Guess there's no hard in it bein' out in that open, but do me a favour li'l buddy, keep tha secret ta ya'self ok."

"I will Jazz, don't worry!" Says Bumblebee amused.

Marissa finally got to them and calls out, "Hi guys, long time no see!"

Jazz replies, "Well hey Marissa, aren't ya a sight f'sore optics!"

Marissa smiles and shakes hands with both of them in turn as they chat and catch up. It had been so long since any of them had seen each other.

"So what'r ya doin' here t'day girl?" Asks Jazz.

"Those Mecha combat units the Military has brought in today," Marissa thought it okay to let the Autobots in on what was going on, as the technology they'd used for building the units, from what she'd managed to find out, was derived from Transformer technology and so she figured they had a right to know. "I'm the new Commanding Officer of the team that will be piloting them, based out of Port Angeles."

"Well hey that's great news! Now that we know where ya gonna be, we can all drop in every now an' again for a visit!"

Marissa remembers how it used to be at the Mt Hood Military Installation near to where the Autobots were stationed at the Ark. They were always dropping in on her then and getting in trouble, well, the twins did anyway, and so did Jazz occasionally.

"So I heard someone made you a Commander too?" Marissa asked. She had only just discovered recently that Jazz was now the ranking Commanding Officer in charge of Autobot City.

"Yeah, that they did!" Snickered Bumblebee, "Not that it's helped us any!"

Jazz gives his diminutive friend a loving headlock and a ruffle of the hair before he lets go and starts to laugh it off. At this Marissa joins in.

*

On Charr, the Dinosaurers ship had touched down outside the citadel that was being built over the ridge from where they were situated. They had set up a defensive position on the ridge to watch the comings and goings at the citadel below.

Before leaving Delta Three, Nova had given them a full brief of the items that were to be recovered. The whole team knew it was important and they had to be recovered from Decellion, Galvetron and the Decepticons.

The Dinobots on the other hand were just there for a fight.

Of the team members, several were on the ridge and several had remained behind in the ship for back up.

The team that was to go in, prepared themselves and selected their entry point, unaware that there was already something going on inside.

Nova hadn't really thought that this was the best plan to go with because she could not ascertain just how many Decepticons there were, or even how many Necromancer and Destron mecha Decellion had at her command either, so she just decided to wing it, much to Bonecrushers chagrin.

*

Back at the airbase, Starscream, Freefall and Airbourne had returned to the runway they had originally taken off from with the Aerialbots hot on their tails.

Ella had congratulated Starscream via private comms. for trying to outdo Freefall, he however was not happy at all at being beaten. Freefall not the usual smiling type playfully gave him a tap in the shoulder; she gave him a small smile before anyone noticed though.

But as soon as they had landed and transformed, they had been followed in by the Aerialbots and surrounded by them for apprehension.

This situation drew Adam Drake.

He couldn't allow his mother to be seen associating with the two mecha in public yet so he decide to intervene himself.

Jazz also saw this and broke away from his conversation with Bumblebee and Marissa to see what was going on.

"You don't have to worry about those two Silverbolt." Commented Adam as he found his way to the leader of the group.

"On the contrary, Mr Drake, these two have wilfully disrupted today's activities and…"

Silverbolt was interrupted by Slingshot, "And bein' that that bozo Starscream is a wanted mech under our laws, he's all ours!" He said as he was cracking his metal knuckle joints.

While Starscream snorted in amused disgust, Adam continued, "Be that as it may, he's on my payroll."

Silverbolt's expression doesn't change but then he spots jazz and looks to him for advice.

Jazz looks up at the young Aerialbot leader and the look he gives him confirms it as far as Silverbolt is concerned.

"Let him go." States Silverbolt firmly.

"But…" Whine Air Raid and Slingshot at once.

"Do it." Snarls their leader loudly and they move to allow the femme and their old foe to move out of the defensive circle they had placed around them.

Starscream is all the while verbally mouthing off at the Aerialbots and its all Skydive and Fireflight can do to hold their comrades back as Freefall tries to get Starscream to shut up. Which doesn't work.

Jazz, to alleviate the situation, sends the Aerialbots back to base to go back on duty so there would be no more trouble. He assured Silverbolt that he and the others would keep an optic on Starscream for trouble if need be and would call Silverbolt of the Aerialbots were needed.

Ella was all the while watching the goings on closely from a distance. After a while she had been joined by Freefall and Starscream in their Biomodes.

Freefall had managed to get them away and into a secluded area to change to their Biomodes again. But as soon as she arrived by Ella's side, she left again soon after, and merged into the nearby crowd, leaving Starscream alone with Ella.

Starscream stood with her in solitude.

Ella was watching some of the other humans amongst the crowd, hanging around watching the Autobots and her team the Roughnecks showing off some driving skills.

She smirks without changing her gaze, "You know, if you hang around long enough Star' you could probably be as good as her?"

Starscream not liking to be placed second to anyone, crosses his arm and comments, "I'm already as good as her. I just let her win!"

Ella laughs, "Yeah, sure you did! You and that ego of yours!" She continues to talk but jokingly, "You know, I might have to team you up with her so she can teach you a thing or two!" Starscream looks over at where Freefall was standing where he had spotted her in the crowd some distance away, talking to a few Roughnecks members.

"Heh!" Says Ella, "So you like what you see eh!" Noticing that Starscream was looking a little too hard at Freefall and her sleek black and indigo figure.

Starscream vehemently denies it of course, "I don't like anyone but me, no one else is good enough, and you should know that."

"And you've been around me a little while now. Long enough to know that I can see through your façade and egotistical clamouring." She puts her hand on his shoulder and he groans in objection.

He looks at her, but then looks in the same direction Ella was looking in. He huffily crosses his arms and says, "I don't like this at all."

"Which part Star', the part where you don't get to do your own thing like you always used to do as an Air Commander of the Decepticon Army or the part where you have to sacrifice that freedom to become something better than you know you're capable of being. You're still the same old stubborn, wilful and ambitious mech I knew so long ago back when I was masquerading as a mech on Cybertron. You know that stubbornness is probably one reason why Megatron kept you around for so long eh? Or perhaps it was tha ambition, or something else entirely. Who rally knows. Maybe he kept you around because he actually liked you!" At this Ella broke out in laughter and it only gave Starscream a disgusted expression, and a silent response. She was not inclined to tell Starscream about something she had seen about him with her futuristic insights.

Ella was momentarily distracted from her joy amidst a catfight that had broken out between her twins. Sometime during the flight performance Sound Track had resumed her robot mode and was now having it out verbally with her twin, Flashdance.

She could clearly hear Sound Track and Flashdance yelling at each other and calling each other names.

'Sigh!' She though. It was rare for the sisters to show emotion like this out in public as they did most of their fighting on the Dragon Valley Base. But when they did fight, it was an all out brawl.

She left Starscream where he was with a reminder that he would not be able to go very far due to the range of his collar, that would keep him close to Freefall, whom he knew would be watching him when Ella left him alone.

When Ella arrived at the scene of the fight she looked around and saw that one of the twins had gotten a cracked faceplate for his trouble for trying to break the two femmes up. Sunstreaker was trying to help his brother up as Sideswipe had gotten quite the blow from Flashdance.

"Geez and here I thought we were bad, those two are just plain murderous!" he commented lightly, trying to sound jovial even though he was in pain.

"Well, now ye know wha' our twins'r like lad!" Laughs Burnout.

Ella hadn't even been able to find out how it started and did not care. She berated both of the femmes for their behaviour and directed them to quit it. They of course listened. She was one person whom they didn't want to mess with, considering what Ella's personal power level could do to either of them if they made her angry.

In the end she just gave up trying to find out what had actually started it and left, leaving the others to enjoy the rest of the day at the fair. And let her spend some time alone here in Portland.

*