Me:….Hey

Ironhide: (\.-)

Me: Hi

Ratchet: (-.-)

Me: How ya'll doin?

Optimus Jazz and Bee: (-.-) (o.O) (*o*)

Me: Yeah…it's been a while

*cannons charging, ratchets shaking, and visors being pulled down*

Me: Warnings include suggestiveness and language, onto the next chapter and I will see you at the end *turns to the bots*

Me: *Deep sigh* hit me with your best shot

(Bumblebee's POV)

I didn't like this at all. There were way too many vehicles around and not enough exits in this traffic-heavy road cross. Sam put on a ball cap and he, Mikaela and Leo stepped out on to the curb and looked around cautiously.

"This is it, Yep," Leo said frantically, the kid was still shaking from his horrid encounter with the Decepticons. His babbling acting as a buffer to his overall anxious demeanor.

"Deli. Good front! All right wait here. I'll give you the go no go. All right?" he walked into the building, Mikaela and Sam stood hidden in the alley next to the building. Their attention suddenly turned to the door and they rushed in. The ring of the bell the last sound before they disappeared. I was left to listen to the bustling of the street as humans and cars passed by on either side of me. The tranquility of it all seemed unreal. Here we were, running from our enemies, hiding in plain sight and the people of this world content with walking by as if nothing were to happen. Despite the hologram we witnessed and the threat that this Decepticon, The Fallen, posed us. They continued with life as usual. It both fascinated and shocked me, how one can continue living with such ease despite the danger they were undoubtedly not ready to face. A ping in my audio turned my attention to the pink Autobot parked across from me.

"Relax Bee," Lilly breathed over the comm

"I am relaxed,"

"If you keep shifting your wheels back and forth like that people are gonna stare," I froze when I realized my movements.

"Sorry…"

"Don't be, we're all a bit on edge…and for good reason,"

"I don't like this, we didn't get a chance to scout things out, we haven't even done a perimeter scan, this isn't good–"

"None of this is," she interrupted.

"But keeping a cool processor is all we can do now,"

"I don't like sitting still," she scoffed as if trying to stifle a chuckle.

"Believe me, I know…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing… just, give it a few more minutes ok?"

"A few more minutes then I'm calling in,"

"Ok, but not a klik more,"

"Thank you,"

"If we could reach out for help I'd be a little less on edge,"

"Don't kid yourself" I heard him chuckle through the comm.

"Fine, I just…" he let out a deep sigh, and at that moment, from his voice alone I felt so much pain through him again. It broke my spark to hear him like this.

"I wish we had our unit with us,"

"Me to Bee, hopefully, we will soon," I glanced towards the horizon seeing the sunlight through the maze of building
s. Rays of sun filtering through the immense crowds.

"Very soon…If I did it right,"

(Mikaela's POV)

The deli was full of people

"Robo-Warrior. It's him! It's him!" Leo yelled.

"That's the guy right there! That's him!" he insisted. Sam and I looked up across the counter to see a very familiar face in an unfamiliar uniform.

"No," Simmons breathed.

"You got to be kidding me," Sam responded.

Well shit.

Ding!

He grew frustrated and frantically started walking behind the counter giving commands to the customers.

"All right, meat store's closed!" he yelled. Customers arguing and muttering in frustration as they went out the door.

"Everybody out! Out, right now!" he continued, approaching a woman pointedly.

"When he says to go, you go. That means you, lady, right now." Leo was certainly confused by this reaction he stepped closer to us.

"Wait a minute. You know this guy?" he asked, jutting his thumb in the direction of a frustrated Simmons.

"We're old friends," Sam muttered.

"Old friends?" Simmons sneered.

"You're the case that shut down Sector Seven, got the kibosh, disbanded. No more security clearance, no retirement, no nothing," he walked around the counter towards us.

"All 'cause of you and your little criminal girlfriend," he eyed me with utter disgust in his eyes, and I sent daggers back.

"Look at her now, so mature,"

"Better off than you are right now," I spat.

"Moron! Where's the whitefish?" an older woman yelled from behind the counter.

"Hey! Don't touch me with the pig," the guy next to her yelled.

"Yakov!" Simmons bellowed.

"What?"

"You don't get Christmas bonuses standing around!" he snarled looking the guy with the direction and focus he must have carried over from sector seven.

"You want those new teeth you saw on SkyMall?"

"It's my dream," he responded.

"Help her out!" Simmons retorted.

"You live with your mama?" I jabbed. He responded with a stern glare and irritated façade.

"No, my mama lives with me," he refocused his attention onto the handle.

"It's a big difference," he muttered. Giving the handle a good heave, it opened to reveal a ladder heading down a darkened tunnel.

"This should be fun," I muttered, waiting my turn to go down.

(Katy's POV)

If there was one situation I could think of where I was in trouble, sitting at the bottom of a river to avoid surveillance from the government and a group of alien nutsos certainly wouldn't be one of them. I decided to retrace my steps from before we split off. It leads me back towards the docks where we fought the Decepticons. It was the dead of night and I was waiting for the last boat to heave off before assuring myself that the coast was clear. Peaking my head up from the murky depths I scanned the shoreline for people. With no one in sight, I crawled out of the water into an alleyway. I felt the cold air as soon as I was out of the water, pealing off the bits of seaweed and muck I collected on my impromptu underwater cruise.

I feel like the swamp thing's tall metal cousin

Once I was satisfied with what I could clean off I slowly moved further away from the docks. Making my way slowly to where Sam and Michaela were taken. though

"Please let something be here," I muttered, looking around for any vehicles to scan to maintain a temporary alt mode that was less...noticeable. My eyes caught on a sleek black car parked in the more populated area of the street. I hunkered down through the alleyway to get a closer look. It was a black Ferrari with some turquoise and silver decals adorning its frame.

"You'll do, for now," I scanned the car and felt the transformation begin. Metal and gears shifting and change within me. I felt a pang in my speech when my wings and jets disappeared replaced with rotors, struts, and tires. I felt less than myself for a moment, but I had a mission to focus on. With my disguised being more versatile, I transformed and drifted out of the alley onto the street, my scanner working to find any clues as to where my friends had disappeared to. I weaved through the city towards the area where we rescued Sam and Michaela from Megatron. The name alone made me shudder in anxiousness. I mentally retraced the last time we had contact with Lilly, Bee and the Twins.

The lights were dim amid the dark, and my scans showed no sign of other people nearby. I transformed into my Bi-ped and walked around looking between the crumbling buildings and alleys. Driving through the nearly empty streets was quite comforting, considering the circumstances. Other than having to watch my own six there weren't many things that warranted high alert. It almost felt normal.

"God I wish Alex was here," I mumbled, entering an abandoned building district. Turning the corners carefully to avoid drawing attention top myself.

"Or Maggie, she'd have a better memory of what happened," I was approaching the factory where Sam was brought to. Checking the for any guards, I slowly shifted my alt mod a bit flatter and drove just under the caution tape into the perimeter. Readjusting myself I moved forward into the dark, to where Bee and Lilly would have encountered Megatron.

Ugh…just thinking about him makes my skin crawl

I was getting tired of finding nothing, but I kept trying. Without a secure way to contact base without interference, there wasn't much I could do for getting help. Trusting my gut, I transformed into bi-ped to get a better look at my surroundings. At least the buildings provided enough cover from wandering eyes at the perimeter. I brought down my visor to give any thermal scans and was relieved to find no major masses of Decepticon bitch nearby. I wandered into an area of buildings that were either condemned or crumbling slowly. There were tire tracks up the whazzo, rusting cars and garbage all over the place, piles of dirt and debris were scattered about.

Wait…tire tracks?

I turned around and analyzed the tread marks in the dirt. Sure enough, my scans showed multiple tracks from multiple cars. I followed them towards an abandoned plaza-like space with what looked like oil lamps and more rusting cars laid about.

"Ok…progress," I lifted my visor and looked around. I identify some footprints and ped marks, but nothing telling me what happened after hiding out here, except for the fact that they left.

"Where did you go?" I whispered glancing around me, and then I saw it. The enhancements of my optics allowed me to see the markings on the wall more clearly. To the naked eye, they looked like random nicks and scratches but for all the times Hatchet drilled Cybertronian into my head I knew exactly what they meant. I squatted down to read the scratches left behind, praying my laziness allowed me to retain some information.

"Robot?...no it's missing a 'T' Robo…" the other marking was weird but familiar.

"Fighter?...no Warrior," I turned away from the wall for a minute trying to figure out what the message meant.

"Robo-Warrior? Why is that so important?" I decided to use some Cybertronian influence and search the web. The only things coming up through Robo Warrior were articles and videos posted on a conspiracy theory website. Trying to find the source was hard because my stupid ass didn't pay attention to Hatchet on how to follow IP addresses but looking through the webpage something caught my eye. A listing on the webpage popped up and something clicked

"NBE sightings…?" reading further there was an explanation of the acronym, and it clicked.

"Simmons," I breathed. I heard something from further down the alley and I transformed before slinking back into the shadows. I watched as flashlights came into view as some officers came into view, making their rounds I assumed. I scanned through databases again searching for information on Simmons. With access to classified records thanks to Cybertronian magic hacks, I filtered through the info. The discharging of Sector Seven, Simmons's records being erased and his research revoked.

"Where did you go?" before I found family history and found a clue.

"Deli shop hu? Didn't peg you for a meat slicer dude," I muttered. I computed my route and drove out of the abandoned complex. Within a few hours hopefully, I'd get there in time before I had to head out start from scratch again.

"Off onto another adventure,"

(Ironhide's POV)

"I wouldn't take that last swig of high grade if I were you," Ratchet muttered matter-of-factly, as the human said. I looked him dead in the optic, every ounce of numbed out pain and sadness I felt in that moment to get my message across.

"Piss of Ratchet," I took down the last swig, letting the energon slip down my throat in a comforting burn.

"We need you sober Ironhide," he muttered coming to sit beside me.

"Yeah…a lot of good that's done so far,"

"And you think falling down a hole of high grade is going to improve anything?"

"Doesn't hurt to try," I muttered resting my helm against the wall of the rec room, now fashioned to be our temporary containment unit.

"For Primus sake Hide, don't tell me after all the slag and aft you've dealt with for millennia, now is when you choose to give?"

"I'm not a sparkling so come off it," I growled, letting my optics stare at the ceiling.

"No, you know Meg–" without thinking my servo was at his throat plating and the other clenched in a fist ready to strike.

"Don't… don't say one more word," I felt myself shaking as I spoke

"Le-et G-o," he wheezed, and I released him, my whole frame slumping back against the wall.

"You know she wouldn't want this," Ratchet breathe, and suddenly I didn't have the strength to stop him again.

"I didn't ask what you think she wants," my optics locked on the ground.

"No, but you need to have someone say it otherwise it'd never get through that thick helm of yours," I didn't answer back.

"Hide," he came and sat beside me.

"We've been part of the same unit for a few millennia,"

"I've seen you at your best and worst self," I fidgeted with the empty high-grade cube in my servos.

"And right now, I may be one of the few who can relate to what your feeling,"

"I don't see you downing high grade," I retorted. There was a brief silence before Ratchet sighed deeply.

"Only because I'm telling myself not to fall into a destructive habit," I felt his optics on me.

"I know that the femmes wouldn't want that for me, for any of us," He added.

"The femme's?" I looked up at him confused.

"Not just Maggie?"

"Well her primarily yes, especially now with how she's planning on performing this reconnaissance mission,"

"But they all have made such an impact on all of us,"

"They are living miracles that I have tried and failed to explain," I looked up at him for a moment, listening more intently.

"Their human compassion overrides nearly all of their Cybertronian cognition, this power they possess still leaves for more to be discovered,"

"Most importantly, they've become a part of our unit, they've made us more of an earth-based family,"

"They've given us a sense of humanity," I interjected.

"Yes," he agreed

"And we need to do right by them," I looked up to him nodding my helm.

"More than anything, right now he needs you," Ratchet said pointing to the supplies in the corner, where I left Andrew in a makeshift shelter to rest.

"He needs you now more than ever,"

"About just as much as I need him,"

"There, let him be the reason to keep you on track, at least for now,"

"We've got to have something to hold onto, at least till this is all over,"

"That almost sounded optimistic," I retorted.

"I'd rather not think on the negatives of this operation," Ratchet responded.

"You're usually the one who analyzes every outcome,"

"Yes, but in this case, the thought of what could go wrong is far more daunting,"

"You're worried for Maggie,"

"Yes, until I can ensure her safety, I will be worried for her," he gripped my shoulder.

"And that's what keeps me focused if the opportunity arises that I am needed for the mission at hand, Primus be damned if I'm not prepared for it,"

"Yeah, sounds about right," I answered before tossing the high-grade cube into the trash receptacle.

"Any news from them?"

"Not since we last commed, they're looking for the person to help with the deception,"

"Well if the girls are good at anything, it's ridiculous ideas miraculously working out," Ratchet chuckled.

"That they do, and no science on earth or Cybertron could explain it,"

"Ironhide?" We both looked across the room to the shelter the sparkling was hidden in.

"I can't find Meg's jacket," poor Andrew appeared so defeated and sad. I looked to ratchet before getting up.

"Duty calls," I muttered and walked over to help him out.

(Lilly's POV)

"So we're going to Washington?" I angled my mirror to see Mikaela. She nodded her head.

"It the closest one to us right now," she responded.

"Little robot said these…seekers, are the only ones who can understand the symbols in my head,"

"Great, more big ass robots," Leo muttered, his head leaning against the front seat, I could feel him trembling.

"Another day in the life," Mikaela muttered.

"Can I make one request?" all eyes in the car turned towards the radio.

"Can we take one night to rest before we go? If I don't get some decent stasis I won't be nearly as alert as I should be if we're intentionally going to a Decepticon for help,"

"But? We have to go get this figured out!" Sam said frantically.

"Ay Man!" Bumblebee's radio clicked on as he rolled up beside me.

"Cool your jets–we're all tired of this bull*beep*–on the flip side – its time to go night-night–or else–somebody gonna come whoop yo ASS boi!" Sam closed his eyes in frustration.

"Sam," Mikaela said placing her hand on his shoulder, rubbing it gently. I angled my mirror and saw the sympathetic look on her face.

"We can't push ourselves over the edge," he turned to face her, his eyes watering slightly.

"Look at our situation, we're running from the government, hiding from Decepticons all over the world," Sam looked out the windshield, his hand covering his mouth his eyes shifting back and forth as he processed her words.

"And now, our only hope us finding a long-time Decepticon to figure out what those symbols in your head mean if we go into that halfcocked…I'm sure they can do worse than what you got from Megatron last time," she argued. Sam turned back to look at her his lip trembling at the thought of what other atrocities the Decepticons would do to them.

"Your right," he breathed, before looking towards Bumblebee.

"You know she's right," Bee's radio responded.

"I'm gonna go ask Simmons if he can give us some food," he muttered putting on his baseball cap and stepping out of the car towards the back exit of the deli.

"Hope it's none of the pig his hideout is under," Mikaela muttered. She turned to look to Leo but he had fallen asleep against the chair, snoring slightly. Her gaze turned back to my radio.

"How are you holding up Lil?"

"I've been better," I chuckled, and I was happy to see a ghost of a smile on her face.

"You can say that again," she replied, sitting back and leaning into her seat.

"I just hope the others are ok,"

"Yeah, me to," she looked towards Bumblebee before leaning back and whispering.

"Do you think your plan is gonna work?"

"I can only hope, it was written in the Cybertronian Ratchet taught," I spotted Sam coming back with a filled paper bag in his arms.

"Hopefully us sitting tight gives them some time to find us,"

"Yeah, hopefully," Mikaela agreed, just as I opened the door to let Sam in, both of us dropping the conversation.

"all right he gave us some capicola sandwiches, a few water bottles," he pulled out the food and passed it to Mikaela, and some money for us to get you, Bee, and the twins some gas,"

"Ugh thank God, I'm starting to feel drained,"

"Seems weird that he's being nice to us all of a sudden," Mikaela said looking down at the generous offer.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," I replied.

"The ma has been living with his mother for God knows how long, and this is the first bit of action he's gotten,"

"Fair point, you wanna drive to get gas while we eat?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'll let Bee know, it's probably best if we go together so we're not singled out,"

"Kay," she murmured in between sandwich bites. Sam reached behind her to tap Leo on the head, the kid shot his head up suddenly looking around confused.

"Ay, we got some food,"

"Lilly to Bee, we have some supplies to go get a fill-up before we go, let the twins know,"

"You got it honey," and the comm went silent. I looked back as the twins rolled out from their spots in the alley to come up behind us as we faced the opening.

"Keep your head on a swivel we don't know who's out there looking for us," Leo sank back against the seat.

"How the hell am I supposed to enjoy anything if I gotta keep looking over my shoulder," I tilted my mirror towards him.

"Do as I say or talk to the Decepticon when it finds you, either way, works for me," I rolled forward with Bee and the twins following in a single file behind me. We went out to the road and headed to a gas station we had passed earlier. The sun was starting to set and the light was slowly fading away, the darkness didn't unsettle me, but the shadows within it were the source of my worries. Under the flickering hum of the lights above us there wasn't much else going on, the store had closed and the self-serving stations were simple enough for the four of us. With the lack of people Sam, Mikaela, and Leo came out to help us fuel up.

"Lilly, We should get going,"

"Bee, we just got here,"

"I know but–" his comm was silent for a moment.

"I got a bad feeling,"

"Do you see anything?"

"I can't use the scanners without revealing an energon signal,"

"Should I do it? Since mine isn't recognizable?"

"No, we can't risk it,"

"But we can risk being jumped in a gas station after sundown?"

"I'll scan the perimeter and if there is the slightest energon reading I'll let you know and we book it,"

"I don't like this, I should do it,"

"And the minute you do any Decepticon looking for us will recognize you signal and send the calvary towards us,"

"Alright…fine, but please be quick," I rolled down my window to catch Mikaela's attention as she was holding the gas pump.

"Lilly?"

"I'm gonna scan for an energon signal, Bee's got a bad feeling," she nodded and hesitantly looked around us with worry. I took a deep breath and activated the scanner, the results coming through my processor. I scanned all around us and was pleased to see there wasn't much activity near us.

"Are you almost done?"

"Just a bit more," the perimeter scan was nearly complete and there was not an energon reading in…

"Oh no," Mikaela's head turned right back to the open window.

"Where?" she asked in a cautious tone.

"Behind the gas station, there's an energon reading,"

"We need to go!"

"Sam let's go!" Mikaela said releasing the pump and all but diving into the driver's seat in my car. The other's doing the same with what fuel we could take before speeding onto the highway.

"What the hell we running from?" Mudflaps said.

"I don't know but I know I saw a vehicle with an energon signal,"

"Not our guys?" Skids asked.

"I didn't plan to stick around to ask!"

"Do you still see them?" Bee asked.

I scanned and saw the signal coming from a side street a few blocks over, still following us.

"Shit!" I saw the alleyway ahead of us and swerved into it, the others coming behind me. My attention remained on the scanner and any nearby getaway.

"Can you get an identifier reading?" Bee commed.

"No! Their identifier is cloaked but the signal is so close the energon sensor caught it," I kept my focus on the scanner as the vehicle moved through the street.

"Slaggit! What's their alt-mode form?"

"Car, common model not any Decepticon I recognize,"

"Any of ours?" I was panicking and doing my best to stay focused.

"I-I don't know, I can't say–" I focused back at the scanner and I felt my spark skip a whir, my entire form starting to shake with worry.

"Lilly?" Bee asked, shaking me out of my daze.

"I lost it,"

"What?"

"They disappeared off the scanner! I don't know where–"

BOOM

Behind us in the middle of the alley, a Cybertronian landed, shaking the ground and my core. Mikaela looked through the rear window, I felt her shaking in the seat. We all were somewhat frozen in place at the sight of this dark stranger, who was coming toward us. They raised their arms and gripped the visor that hid their face…and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Katy!" I instantly transformed, setting Mikaela on the ground before gripping onto my friend as my life depended on it, which at this point I'm pretty sure it did.

"Lil! Thank God you're safe," she exclaimed.

"Why'd you have to be so secretive, you scared me half to death! I thought a Decepticon found us!"

"Yeah sorry I was doing me best to stay incognito," Bee transformed behind us, an excited expression on his face.

"Well hack my legs off and call me shorty–Sis! Ya made it!"

"Ay Bumble Bro!" she went over to hug him, and he graciously returned the gesture, clinging to her as if she was a sign of hope.

"Good to see you guys," she said stepping back from him.

"Not to be the party pooper but we can't risk you guys being seen," Mikaela shouted from the ground.

"Oh right," I said before transforming to my alt-mode, Katy and Bee doing the same.

"Wait what happened to your wings?"

"Not exactly easy to be incognito as a jet plane rolling through main street,"

"Fair point," I responded.

"Is it just you?" Katy sighed and rolled closer towards us.

"Yeah, I was the only who managed to get away,"

"Get away? From what?" Mikaela asked

"Galloway has the Autobots on locked down," she responded, and I felt a tension rise among us.

"Are the others ok?" Sam asked.

"I honestly have no idea, the last communication I had with them was when Jazz told me to hightail it and fly," I felt her attitude dampen at the thought, who's to say the terror she felt when she got that comm, never mind how long she was on her own, no one there to help her, no one to reach out to. I couldn't imagine that scenario without being saddened by the thought.

"Damn that Galloway," Mikaela huffed.

"Ditto" Bee responded.

"All we can do is keep going with what we got," I said.

"Yeah, with Galloway involved it has to do with the manhunt out on Sam" Mikaela added.

"So, what are you guys planning to do? Besides Simmons, like how did you get here?" Katy asked.

"Do you have ninety minutes?" Bee's radio replied.

"I got time to spare bro," She responded happily

"So there we were, stranded and hiding," Be started and proceeded to get her up to speed with the plan. I felt so much joy spread through me. To have certainty that a person I care for was ok and right here. Despite the situation, I felt like I was on top of the world.

Rubble and Debris filled the room, there was no light in sight, and nothing left alive, aside from some giant robots standing in the center

Ironhide: Oh squishy…I needed that

Ratchet: This was indeed adequate stress relief and substantial punishment for you taking so long

Optimus: despite this being completely outside of my normal character parameters this was necessary to have you realize your neglect on this story

Bee: If ya did the crim ya do the time

Jazz: C'mon you def saw this coming

From the pile of rubble a hand shoots out and claws its way out from beneath the dirt and soot

Me: *cough, cough, spits out tooth* Yeah…I deserved that

Ratchet: come no let's get you repaired properly

Me: Nah I got it *snaps fingers*

Room returns to original state and I am unscathed once more

Ironhide: What the aft was that for?

Me: This is a figment of my imagination Hide *brushes off dust from my shoulder* reality is never constant here, but I deserved the beat down for neglecting you guys so I gave ya that one

Ironhide: means nothing if it don't last

Me: It damn well still hurt Hide, I just skipped what would be months of mental recuperation

Ratchet: that is not healthy eit–

Me: No time for logic, my imagination my rules *turns to readers* anyways, Hello loves sorry for the long hiatus but I hope this edit is satisfactory enough till the next update which will be soon I promise. Thank you all for the heartfelt comments and support it really helped me get back into writing and to give this to you! So pat yourselves on the back because you don did some serious necromancy to bring this writer back from the dead!

Ratchet: Necromancy is fictional

Me: *deep sigh* well you never cease to bring back reality my friend. Till the next chapter my loves leave a comment and I'll leave responses!