Guess who's back? I was definitely expecting to take another week at least to get this one out, but I guess I needed a break from doing classwork all day, so...here ya go! As always, thanks so much for the reviews/favorites! See ya next time :)

Chapter 11:

Invasion

"There's a horror movie called 'Alien'? That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you."

-12th Doctor, Doctor Who

Billy leaned back into the passenger seat of Bee's alt mode, struggling to quell her laughter.

"R-Raf! How could you possibly mistake a skunk for a cat?" she giggled, turning in her seat to face the slightly disgruntled boy in the backseat.

Raf had his arms crossed in an attempt to seem annoyed, but the slight upwards tilt of one corner of his mouth gave away his amusement.

"I don't know! It was dark out and I didn't have my glasses on! It's an easy mistake to make," Raf threw his arms up in exasperation. "Come on, Bee, back me up here."

Bee, who had been quietly making a sound that suspiciously resembled a laugh, paused at Raf's demand, thinking it over.

"Hmmm. I don't know, little man. I think I'm with Billy on this one,"he teased, the laughing sound resuming again.

"Alright, alright," Raf finally chuckled, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "You guys win. Next time I take out the trash, I'll be sure to put my glasses on first."

"And just as a precaution, how about you don't try to pet any small furry animals you find out there," Billy added with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Raf replied before leaning forward to watch their entrance to the Autobot base.

Billy didn't have work that day since there was something wrong with one of the dry cleaner's conveyor belts, which meant that she and Raf were getting to the Autobot base much earlier than they normally did on Saturdays.

Before she met the bots and started hanging out with Raf, Jack, and Miko, that sort of news would have put her in bad spirits for the rest of the weekend. Saturdays were usually when she was able to rack up the most hours, after all, and no paycheck meant less food when school break rolled around. But now, she didn't mind as much. It was still a downer for sure, but at least she wouldn't have to spend the day moping around the freeway bridge by herself.

Bumblebee, along with Bulkhead, who was carrying Miko and Jack, came to a stop once they reached the hangar. Optimus, Arcee, and Ratchet were standing near the computer terminal when they arrived, looking as though they had been discussing something important, but stopped talking as soon as the kids stepped out of their guardians' alt modes.

"Miss us, doc bot?" Miko called as she hopped out of Bulkhead's passenger seat.

Billy chuckled to herself as she pulled the straps of her backpack on, watching the medic roll his eyes at the exuberant teenager.

"Shouldn't they be in school?" he asked, directing his inquiry to Optimus. Billy even detected a small hint of desperation in the poor bot's tone. Optimus didn't have time to answer before Miko jumped back into the conversation, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of Bulkhead and Bumblebee transforming behind the group of teens.

"On a Saturday?" she asked incredulously. "We have the whole weekend off! To spend with you."

Ratchet shook his head at that, mumbling quietly to himself as Jack, Billy, and Raf walked past him on their way to the balcony. Raf and Billy shot each other amused glances, but wisely chose to keep their mouths shut. Miko and Ratchet's squabbling was always good entertainment, as long as they didn't get involved.

"I wasn't expecting the carpool," Jack commented as he approached his guardian. "What gives, Arcee?"

"Tag team, Jack," she replied easily, taking a few steps closer to the boy and gesturing towards the ground bridge. "It's my turn for exploration duty."

"Oh. Too bad," Jack shrugged before crossing his arms, his voice taking on a teasing tone. "It's a beautiful day for a ride…I would hate for you to feel guilty for leaving me indoors."

Arcee was not impressed at her ward's not-so-subtle attempt to tag along.

"Arctic exploration duty," she stressed, raising an eyebrow pointedly. Jack immediately backed down.

"Indoors, where it's warm!" he shot her a quick thumb's up before heading up the stairs to the balcony.

Raf, who was also on his way to the stairs with Billy at his side, paused at Arcee's words. Billy stopped along with him.

"The Arctic?" he questioned, voice full of wonder. "I've always wanted to see snow!"

Billy smiled softly at the kid's excitement. He could be impressed by the smallest things. It was one of the many reasons she was actually beginning to count him as a close friend, almost like…almost like a little brother.

"I would invite you to join, Rafael, but the conditions are much too extreme. Even for we Autobots," Optimus spoke up, seeming a little regretful of his decision.

Billy put a hand on the boy's shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile when he turned briefly to look at her, which he returned, although it was tinged with a shadow of disappointment.

"I…understand," Raf replied, facing the Autobot leader again after a moment. Optimus nodded and turned to leave but stopped before entering the area where the ground bridge was located.

"But I will bring you back a snowball," he said, shooting the boy a warm look over his shoulder. Raf immediately brightened up, bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement.

"That would be awesome!"

Billy smiled at his excitement, but it soon turned to a small frown as a thought occurred to her. She looked between Optimus and Arcee, who were waiting patiently for the bridge to power up, and Ratchet, who was fiddling around with the controls.

If they can't be out in the cold for very long, then how did they survive that battle with Megatron over the space bridge?

Billy quickly scaled the stairs and made her way over to where Ratchet was still typing away at the console, her burning curiosity overcoming any apprehension she would normally have for interrupting the medic's work.

"Hey, Ratchet?" she asked, leaning over the balcony railing slightly to see him better. "I have a question."

Ratchet barely spared a glance in her direction before looking back down to the console. "Yes, yes, what is it? I'm a bit busy."

"I know, it's just…well, space is a lot colder than the Arctic, right?" she asked, undeterred by the bot's gruff tone. "But you guys didn't seem to have any problems with it when you were dealing with the space bridge, so I was just wondering…"

"Why the Arctic's cold is more dangerous to our kind than the cold of a vacuum," Ratchet finished, finally looking up from his work to address the teen. Billy nodded, the small smile from earlier creeping back onto her face. She knew Ratchet would have a hard time turning down a chance to rant about science, even if it was to a species he wasn't particularly fond of.

"Oh!" Raf's voice piped up from the stairwell. "I didn't even think of that."

Ratchet seemed to sigh – a human habit he'd probably picked up from Miko – and looked over his shoulder briefly at Optimus, who raised an eyebrow expectantly. Billy couldn't be sure, but for a brief moment she could've sworn the Autobot leader was smirking from behind his battle mask. Maybe.

"It's…it's very complicated," Ratchet started, turning back to the two teens. "I don't expect humans – especially younglings – to grasp the complexities of Cybertronian biology…"

A slight noise from Optimus' direction cut off what was shaping up to be yet another muttered rant about inferior human brainpower.

"But if you must know," the medic continued, sneaking another light glare in Optimus' general direction. "Before we arrived on Earth, we compiled vital information about your planet in order to develop and integrate into our systems what is known as an Atmospheric Datapack. It allows our systems to process the differences in gravity, elemental compounds, etcetera between your planet and ours."

"Even the Decepticons?" Billy asked, too wrapped up in her curiosity to worry about interrupting. "They must have the same thing, right?"

Ratchet huffed. "I would assume so. Megatron had his fair share of former scientists in his inner circle, Starscream and Soundwave chief among them. And it's not as though the technology is anything new. Our kind utilized Atmospheric Datapacks for exploration purposes long before the war began."

"So…what does that have to do with the cold?" Raf questioned, finally having scaled the stairs and reached the area of the balcony where Billy was standing.

"Zip-ep-ep, I'm getting there," Ratchet replied impatiently. "These datapacks were designed to overwrite sections of the coding that controls vital functions in our frames, such as vent systems, energon flow rate, and coolant lines in order to survive in conditions very different from those of our home planet. It's a helpful adaptation but relies on a very complex series of checks and balances in order to maintain itself. If we venture outside the parameters set by the datapacks for too long…"

"You can die," Billy realized quietly.

Ratchet nodded.

"But then how did Optimus and the others survive out in space?" she continued, looking nervously to Bee, who was watching the conversation as he leaned casually against the wall across from the balcony.

"Simple," Ratchet answered crisply, turning back to the ground bridge controls. "Their system modulators recognized that they were not on Earth, and therefore that the Atmospheric Datapack for this planet was no longer needed. We have another Datapack specifically designed for surviving in a vacuum, and their systems reverted to that one in its place."

"That is so cool!" Billy exclaimed, the brief worry over her guardian's safety immediately being overwhelmed with excitement as Ratchet's explanation finally clicked. Raf nodded enthusiastically from beside her, pushing up his glasses as they slipped down his nose.

"Yeah! Do you think you could show me some of the coding for those sometime, Ratchet?" the boy asked eagerly.

Ratchet seemed surprised at their interest but mumbled indistinctly about possibly translating a few lines for the boy to look at before turning his attention back to the controls. As Raf skipped away, chattering excitedly to Bumblebee about coding and Cybertronian computer languages, the ground bridge finally crackled to life.

Optimus and Arcee, who had been waiting patiently for Ratchet to finish his explanation, walked off into the bridge as soon as it formed, their shapes fading into the swirling green energy. Billy watched them go before starting after Raf, hoping to get the chance to ask Bumblebee about the inter-planetary exploration missions Ratchet mentioned.

She only got about halfway there before hearing something crash over by the controls, followed by some loud cursing courtesy of Ratchet. Stopping in her tracks, Billy turned and hurried back towards the spot on the balcony where she'd been standing before.

She was very eager to learn more about how the ground bridge functioned but unfortunately Ratchet never let her or the other three humans anywhere near the controls. Most of the time she had to settle for watching at a distance and asking the occasional question when she deemed the grumpy medic to be in a semi-favorable mood. She'd already managed to pry one answer out of him today, though. Two might be pushing her luck.

"By the Allspark," Ratchet muttered to himself as she reached the railing right next to the controls.

Billy leaned in closer to try and get a good look, but the bot was blocking her view of the main panel, which continued to spark randomly. A particularly energetic burst startled Ratchet enough to start cursing again as he worked, which gave Billy all the proof she needed that this was one of those situations where asking questions would not be in her best interest.

"So…what do you guys think we should do today?" Miko's voice carried over from the other side of the balcony.

Billy glanced over to see the other three humans mostly focused on Bumblebee and Bulkhead, although Raf shot the occasional glance over to see what Billy and Ratchet were up to. Not wanting to worry him, she gave him a brief wave and did her best to look relaxed as Bee replied to the other girl's question.

"How about…a video game competition?" Bee suggested, miming a video game controller for the benefit of Miko and Jack, who still weren't able to interpret his speech.

"Video game tournament! Last one standing wins!" Raf echoed, following Jack and Miko to the green couch in the corner with the console set up in front of it.

Satisfied that the boy would be entertained for a while, Billy turned her attention back to the ground bridge, only to jump in surprise when Ratchet suddenly stood up and yelled across the room.

"Bulkhead! Bumblebee! Here, now!" he barked, not even attempting to disguise his urgent tone.

Billy frowned. This issue must be pretty serious if Ratchet was requesting the help of Bulkhead and Bee. Usually he preferred to work alone.

The two bots only hesitated a moment before heading over to see what Ratchet needed, Bee shooting Raf an apologetic look as he passed.

"Sorry, Raf. Hopefully this won't take long," he said.

Billy didn't hear Raf answer, but she was much too focused on the ground bridge to pay much attention to the other teens now. Ratchet was attempting to activate the still-sparking ground bridge lever, but no matter how many times he shifted it, the thing wouldn't turn on. He was even beginning to resort to lightly punching it on the side by the time Bulkhead and Bumblebee approached. Bee looked up briefly to give Billy a small wave, which she returned, but went straight back to watching Ratchet struggle with the controls.

"You can't boss us around just because the boss is out," Bulkhead huffed, oblivious to the medic's bad mood. Ratchet ignored the comment, getting straight to the point.

"I need some heavy lifting. The ground bridge is down," he said, not looking away from the control panel.

"What? What about Optimus and Arcee?" Bumblebee asked worriedly. Billy frowned. She hadn't thought of that.

"Optimus and Arcee made it through just fine, it's bringing them back that concerns me," Ratchet replied quickly, finally turning away from the controls to face the other two bots. "Now, remove those panels. Chop, chop."

Billy watched with interest as the two did as they were told, heaving away two panels that had been hidden in the framework of the hangar floor near the ground bridge to expose a bunch of wires and circuitry. Setting her backpack down quietly so as not to disturb the short-tempered medic, she took out her 'idea notebook', which was filled with random drawings, to-do lists, and project ideas, and flipped to a new page to begin taking notes on what she could see.

She may not be the computer genius that Raf was, but she knew her way around a circuit board and was always eager to learn more about good engineering. And this…well the chance to even get a glimpse at some of the inner workings of something of this caliber was the opportunity of a lifetime. If her interaction with the thing was limited to watching from a distance, then so be it. She'd take what she could get.

O*O*O*O*O*O

A little while later, Billy's notebook had an additional three pages of random, hastily written notes on what she had observed in the three bots' attempts to fix the ground bridge. She had tried to ask a couple questions, but Ratchet either didn't hear her or pretended not to. She didn't really mind that much, though. Her glimpse of the interior control panel alone gave her a few ideas for a project design she had been thinking about drawing up.

"Look, Ratchet, I pulled up all the panels you wanted, you don't have to be all – " Bulkhead started, gesturing to the sections of uncovered wiring scattered around the bridge area.

"Unless you have something helpful to add, Bulkhead, I would really appreciate some quiet so I can work," Ratchet cut him off, waving a tool threateningly in his vague direction before getting back to muttering to himself. Bulkhead huffed but stood by Bee and waited for the medic to give them some more directions.

"In! Your! Face!" Jack's voice suddenly cried from the other side of the room.

Billy rolled her eyes and turned to look at the group for the first time since the repairs had begun, only to frown when she realized that Raf wasn't there like she expected him to be. She opened her mouth to call out to Jack, but before she could get a word out, the lights in the hangar shut off. It only lasted a few seconds, but when the lights came back on, they seemed weaker than before.

"Aww, it wiped out our game," Miko whined sarcastically, shrugging and got off the couch to start walking to the stairs. Billy pushed off the railing, closing her notebook and sliding it into her backpack before joining the other girl, hoping to finally get a closer look at what Ratchet and the others had been working on.

"But-But I was winning!" Jack exclaimed miserably, falling in step behind Miko.

"Bummer," Miko stuck her tongue out at the boy and beginning her descent down the stairs, Billy a couple steps behind her.

As they went down the last few steps, Billy watched Ratchet remove one of the circuit chips from the panel Bulkhead had removed a few minutes before the power started acting up. As he held up the component, Billy could make out some heavy damage to the piece, with large chunks missing from it almost like something had…taken a bite out of it?

"We most definitely have a problem," Ratchet stated grimly, turning the chip this way and that to examine the damage. "But what could have caused this?"

The power flickered once more, and Billy couldn't help but glance around nervously in response. Where was Raf? There wasn't any way this could be a Decepticon attack, could it?

"Or that," Bulkhead added, looking around the room in annoyance.

"It might be the main grid," Ratchet hummed, bringing the chip closer to his face in thought. "Hopefully it isn't a substation malfunction."

"Hey guys! Look what I found," Raf's voice suddenly called, echoing from one of the tunnels leading out of the main hangar.

Billy whipped around to face the boy, letting out a small breath of relief at seeing him safe and unharmed, carrying some sort of metal ball in his arms. All the system malfunctions today were really putting her on edge.

"We're busy!" Ratchet called, shaking his head as he looked up from the circuit chip to chastise the boy.

But instead of continuing on some sort of long-winded rant as usual, Billy watched as his eyes grew comically wide and he shrieked, scrambling to his feet and jumping backwards. Bulkhead and Bumblebee did the same, wearing identical expressions of complete and utter terror.

Billy looked between the three giants dubiously. She had never seen any of them this scared, not even when they were facing off against Megatron's stupid space bridge. But her eyes widened in shock a moment later, when Bulkhead and Bee suddenly cued their blasters and pointed them straight at Raf.

"Raf!" she cried, jumping in front of the boy and putting an arm behind her to keep him there. Jack and Miko followed suit, both shouting for the bots to put their weapons away. Billy looked at Bumblebee frantically, internally begging him to calm down.

Oh, god, what if they have some sort of weird alien virus or something and think Raf is a con? They look ready to kill him! She thought, looking between the three bots fearfully before a surge of protectiveness hardened her features. The strength of the feeling caught her off guard for a moment, but she didn't question it for long. No way was anyone, giant alien bot or otherwise, going to hurt Raf. They'd have to go through her first.

Finally, the shouting slowed down enough for Miko to get a word in without being interrupted.

"Hey, hey! What is with you guys?" she asked, mostly directing her question at Bulkhead. The large green warrior was all too eager to reply.

"Scraplet! Scraplet!" he cried, waving his cannon around wildly. Billy looked back at Raf, her eyes drawn to the thing in his arms, which was beginning to stir. Her eyes narrowed. Was that thing…alive?

"What's a scraplet?" Raf piped up, peeking around Jack's arm to look at the bots curiously.

"The most dangerous vermin ever to crawl upon the face of Cybertron," Ratchet answered quickly, eyes fixed on the little lump of metal in Raf's arms.

Jack, Miko, and Billy exchanged confused glances before relaxing their defensive stance in front of Raf.

"This? Are you kidding me?" Jack scoffed, leaning in a little closer to look at Raf's companion.

"Yeah, you're giant robots," Miko agreed, gesturing wildly to the three aliens still cowering in the corner. "Scrappy here is…teeny."

Raf nodded happily and started stroking the thing, but Billy still wasn't really sure what to think. On one hand, it did seem pretty harmless compared to the Autobots, but on the other…there were plenty of small organisms on Earth that could do a lot of damage to humans despite their size. Why should Cybertronian wildlife be any different?

She stepped closer to the three bots, sparing a cautious glance at the little creature behind her before speaking up.

"Are they…venomous or something?" she asked. Ratchet quickly shook his head in the negative.

"No, no, it's much worse than that -" he started, only for Bulkhead to cut him off in a panicked tone.

"You have no idea the damage that teeny thing can do!" he exclaimed, taking another step back.

"Aw, he wouldn't hurt anything," Raf piped up calmly. Billy winced as he began to stroke the thing again. Tiny or not, she wasn't so sure that holding something that made giant robots nearly wet themselves was a good idea.

At Raf's touch, the object finally stirred, metallic lids opening to reveal large, purplish eyes. It blinked once before focusing on the three bots in front of it, pausing only for a moment, then opened its mouth, lined with rows upon rows of shiny metal teeth. And they were all pointed directly at Bumblebee.

It leapt out of Raf's arms and made a beeline for the bright yellow scout, dodging every one of the cannon shots he fired before launching itself directly onto Bee's left shin. Billy's mouth dropped open in horror as she watched the tiny creature chow down on her guardian's leg, leaving a line of grey metal behind as it zig-zagged all over.

Bee fell back, grabbing the little monster off his leg only for it to start eating away at his forearm as well. He managed to fling it a distance away from him before it got too far up his arm, but it just turned and started right back after him.

"No!" Raf cried, grabbing hold of a crowbar from the ground and smashing it down upon the little creature, over and over and over, until it was nothing but a sparking metal pancake.

Before he could continue hitting it, Billy grabbed the crowbar and threw it off to the side before pulling Raf into a tight hug.

"Easy there, killer," Jack said softly from somewhere behind Billy. She pulled away from the boy as soon as he stopped shaking so they could see if Bee was alright. He was still on the ground, with Ratchet knelt down in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Bumblebee!" Raf cried, running closer to his guardian.

"It's ok, little dude, you didn't know," Bee replied easily, although Billy noticed his voice shook a little.

"Is he gonna be ok?" Raf turned to Ratchet frantically. Billy grasped the boy's hand tightly in reassurance.

Ratchet glanced his way briefly before turning his attention back to Bee.

"Only a mesh wound," he sighed, leaning back in relief. "He'll live."

"Now do you believe me?" Bulkhead spoke up from Bee's other side. "All scraplets do is dismantle machinery and eat anything metal. Especially living metal!"

"Well, bug squash, game over…right?" Jack asked hesitantly, taking a few steps closer to the group.

"No," Ratchet answered firmly. "When it comes to scraplets, there's never just one. And I fear I know how they got in here."

Billy tore her gaze away from Bee to look back at the squashed scraplet on the hangar floor behind her.

If one of them could do that much damage so quickly, what'll happen when a few more of his buddies find their way here?