How's everyone doing this possibly fine or terrible day hope it's well and if it's not well go out and change that, take drugs fight a bear and if you don't get that I'm disappointed in you.

Before we continue with today's unscheduled madness I would like to respond to you glorious individuals who take the time and review this story.

Atsik101: glad you liked it, and unfortunately I haven't seen any of the fast and furious movies (other than Hobbs and Shaw which might or might not count I don't know.) to make any funny comments.

Starpottergeek: Glad to hear you liked it, and also glad you liked the names for the others, once again I hope I left enough hints as to who was who and yes you assumed correctly.

Atsik101: Thanks I try to make the characters not to out of character, and it's good to know I'm getting Miko right. And unfortunately a I haven't seen any of the fast and furious movies aside from Hobbs and Shaw and I don't know if that counts.

Liam199e: Thanks for the review and suggestion it was a good read, but I also hate it because I was obsessed with finishing reading it and it's part of the reason this chapter is late lol.

Knightoftime: Yeah this story isn't meant to be super serious and angsty constantly so weirdness is bound to occur unless you're talking about story errors which I would like to be made aware of so I can fix it. Also glad to know the latest chapters have grabbed your attention.

Also sorry for the delay in this chapter I got hooked into reading another story partially to try and keep my mind off of personal matters I suppose, which all I'm gonna say about that is that I hope none of you ever have to go through the pain of having a relative with Alzheimer's or any other type of mental disease and to those who understand and have gone through that, I hope you're doing alright my thoughts and prayers go out to you.

Ladies, Gents, Toasters, and Others I present to you chapter 27 now let's get it rolling.

-TFP-TFP-TFP-

Hatred without focus makes the eager man fall. Violence without purpose makes the mighty man small. Vengeance without mercy leaves the noble man flawed."

-Zack Hemsey-Nice to Meet Me

-TFP-TFP-TFP-

Family is the Base

Chapter 27

Solarblade watched as everyone else spread out, most everyone leaving to give the reuniting families privacy. She looked down at her dad, who was looking around in confusion as everyone left and before long they were alone with one another.

"Ah, oh dear." Isaac turned around trying to figure out where to go or what to do, it even looked as if he wasn't even aware that she was there.

Admittedly it took her an embarrassingly long amount of time before she realized she was still in her Jeep Wrangler alt. Slowly as to not surprise her dad or to lose her balance and accidentally hurt him she came out of her alt, regardless he was still surprised at the empty car in front of him suddenly shifting into a femme quite a bit taller than him.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realize you were one of them I had simply assumed you were that rude agents car. Ah my name is Isaac Sumdac it is nice to meet you." Mr. Sumdac reached out his hand as if to try and shake her servo but realizing the size of her servo pulled it back.

Solarblade giggled and thought it polite to introduce herself since her dad had done the same. "It's nice to meet you, I go by the designation Solarblade, and don't worry about not noticing me that's kinda the point so I'm glad to know it works." Solarblade smiled down at her dad but realized how far he had to crane is neck to look up at her. "Here how about we sit in the shade, it would be more comfortable for the both of us."

It took Solarblade a few steps to get into the late afternoon shade of the hanger but Mr. Sumdac had to jog to keep up, by the time she had sat down he had just caught up and was panting slightly from the heat. "Oh I'm sorry; I'm used to being the one having to keep up with the others."

Her dad rested his hands on his knees for a moment getting his breath back, working in a lab for as long as he had gotten a bit out of shape. "It is quite… alright Ms. Solarblade a bit of exercise is probably good for me, my daughter would certainly think so."

"Your daughters a sensible girl by the sound of it then." Solarblade giggled at the thought of her dad calling her sensible, she wasn't sure how many times she figured out how to rewire her teacher robot.

"Ha, she has her moments, but that was part of why I sent her to Jasper, I wanted her to learn in an environment where she could focus and not be constantly be surrounded by my work." Mr. Sumdac's face fell as he continued talking about Sari.

Solarblade tried to give him a reassuring smile but she wasn't sure how well it was working. She wondered if maybe now would be the best time to start explaining things in more detail, he looked torn up about her going missing and she figured he probably blamed himself for sending her away in the first place.

"Mr. Sumdac." Solarblade felt weird addressing her dad like that but knew she had to until she finished. "I know you probably want to see your daughter, but… there are some things I'm going to need to explain first alright just so everything makes a bit more sense." Mr. Sumdac looked like he wanted to protest but reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry everything will… hopefully, make more sense it's just been a chaotic past couple of months." Solar then started explaining everything, from what the cybertronians were, so the experiment that she and the others were subjected to. When she got to that part her dad listened with a morbid fascination about a machine that twisted biology in machinery. He wasn't sure what to think about that part of the explanation and Solarblade gave him a moment to collect his thoughts before she continued onto lighter topics such as their escape and subsequent training into the Autobot ranks and computer repair work.

"Well… now you know kinda everything." Solarblade had to grip her arms to stop from drumming her digits, her nerves were so bad to see her dad's conclusion.

"Sari? Could you lift me up please?" she nodded and lowered a servo do and let him up onto it and raised him up to her chest plate. Mr. Sumdac leaned forward and almost dangled over the edge of her servo before spreading out his arms and hugging his daughter. "I am just glad to have you back; I was so worried when I heard what happened it is just good to see you again even if you look different."

Sari was about to reply when a small black sedan peeled around the corner stopping just a few feet from her and her dad, The window started rolling down and Fowler poked his head out. "Solar, have you seen Windstreak?"

Solarblade shuttered her optics in surprise and pointed in the direction of the barracks with her free servo. "Yeah she went with everyone else to see their families why what happened?"

"I messed up is what happened, I gotta talk to her." Fowler ducked back into his car and drove away.

"I wonder what that could have been about."

"My guess is as good as yours; Fowler's a pretty weird dude."

"Ah that is good to know I suppose. Hmm if you wouldn't mind could I examine your hands? My latest design is suffering from a malfunction in the joints and I wondered if you might be able to help with that." Solarblade laughed and rolled her optics but agreed regardless glad she could assist her dad in some way again.

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Ron "Sparkplug" Witwicky was a stubborn man, he knew that, his wife knew that just about everyone who knew him knew that which was why he was still arguing with his son about whether or not it was the truth or not.

"So your technically an alien huh, not some made in china robot just saying he's my son."

Thankfully for Augment, Judy Witwicky was less stubborn than her husband which was a blessing for the mech who was halfway on the way to giving up on his dad.

"Oh Ron knock it off, you've said that four times already, and I swear he's also brought up things only you two should know so stuff it." Judy glared as she crossed her arms standing in front of her son.

Sparkplug tried to match her glare with one of his own but he knew it was a lost cause. "Alright, alright fine have it your way, just one more thing only us three would know eh it'll make me feel better."

Augment groaned but if it would finally appease his dad then fine. "Alright fine, last one. Ugh alright here, what about when you guys first met Mikaela yeah?" Augment really hated this memory but he figured he could live through the embarrassment if his dad would finally believe him. "You remember the power went out and I had my door locked you started counting and I think mom had the baseball bat."

"Ah geez yeah that poor girl having to listen through all of that," Ron wiped his forehead of sweat that was building up from standing out in the desert sun. "I like to embarrass ya kid but that was just awful."

"Oh she must have been so embarrassed, but what did you think was gonna happen you know the no locked doors policy in the house." Judy had crossed her arms and looked at her son in a scolding manner but eased up. "And besides it's only natural for a boy your age to have some personal happy time so I just assumed." Judy shrugged and looked at both her son and husbands horrified faces.

"Judy no, we talked about that you don't just go around saying stuff like that."

Augment was just glad that after the initial introduction and explanation of events that Optimus had left to go check on Sari and Sierra because he did not want to explain any of that.

"Well how did you even get dragged into this, I'd have known if you met aliens cause you can hardly keep your yap shut about Mikaela." Ron grinned at his son's flustered expression, and decided to continue prodding. "I can just imagine it from your descriptions, 'ah it's a demon car shooting lasers at us'." For extra affect Mr. Witwicky started waving his arms around in a panicked manner.

"Oh Ron knock it off, poor Sammy must have been terrified."

Augment groaned as his parents got into an argument about how Judy babied him and Ron teased him too harshly, he could only silently sit there and pray that the growing processor ache would stop. "Listen, okay yeah I'm not a kid anymore mom, and yeah even if dad's teasing is annoying I can put up with it, really if I wanted to I can literally just turn off my ears."

Mr. and Mrs. Witwicky both properly scolded by their son reluctantly conceded, although Augment knew it wouldn't be long before they got fired up about something regarding him. "Alright fine, you still didn't answer my question though."

"Er yeah I never met any of them before this happened, it was actually Jack who was friends with them."

"That Darby kid you offered a job? How in the world did he met them, that I heard he was working shifts at Knockout Burger, only thing he could meet there is that punk wannabe racer Vance or whatever." Ron grunted crossing his arms in distaste.

Augment snickered and was also kinda glad Hardcharger wasn't there to hear that. "Uh yeah he's around here somewhere and he's bigger than me so you might not wanna call him that."

"Great, an illegal street racer gets turned into a robot that can turn into a car that sounds like a good idea." Ron scoffed, "Well can we go someplace else that's maybe a bit cooler, my knees are starting to ache and it's hot out here."

"Oh Ron you should have said something earlier we could have just gone back to the room, now you're going to be complaining about your knees for the rest of the day." Judy glared at her husband who was too stubborn to submit to his joint issues.

Augment rolled his optics, well between his family everything went back to normal in a sense quicker than he thought. Watching his parents, he began to wonder if maybe staying away a bit longer would have been good as they began arguing again.

-TFP-TFP-TFP-

Daniel Winters was typically a rather reserved man, he was quiet and perceptive, and he also spent a large portion of his time when he wasn't working looking up information about aliens, so he was currently having his dream come true. "See Olivia I knew it! Haha all those hours spent researching and hacking into servers to dig up information paid off."

Stormflare wondered honestly if her dad had heard anything she had said after she mentioned she was now technically an alien or at least a human in an alien body. She had never seen her father quite like this, sure when she was around he would be happy that she was there or show excitement about some new discovery he 'made' which she knew to simply be conspiracy theories but this was on a whole new level. If they were in an enclosed room he would be literally bouncing off the walls.

Olivia Winters having married the alien savant or "Martian Master" as she sometimes jokingly called him knew that if he had actually met an alien of any degree he'd probably make a fool out of himself in his excitement. Rolling he eyes while simultaneously massaging her head trying to sooth the growing headache from a sudden influx of surprising information. At least he was just acting like a nut case in front of their daughter which was nothing new really, what was new was that said daughter was now several feet taller than either of them and now made of metal and circuits rather than flesh and blood.

"Honey please can you tone it down a little," Olivia quietly asked, "This is a little much." At once her husband immediately ceased all activity and finally seemed to notice his wife for the first time in a while.

Compared to his lively self his wife was significantly paler at the moment and was even starting to shake slightly. Worried for her mom Stormflare raised a servo over her to provide some small amount of Shade while her dad held onto her making sure she was steady and not about to fall over.

They all stood like that in silence, and over the course of about ten minutes the color returned to Mrs. Winters face and the shaking stopped. Mr. Winters let go of his wife and she stood up straight and gave both Stormflare and Daniel a slightly pacifying smile. "Thank you; I'm not too sure what happened I just got really dizzy for a moment."

"Let's get you out of the sun, I can take you back to the barracks quicker than you can get there on foot." Stormflare shifted into her Suzuki alt-mode, beckoning her parents to climb on with her mirrors.

Hesitantly Daniel brought his leg over the motorcycle and paled slightly as he took ahold of the handlebars having never ridden a motorbike before was a bit nervous. Olivia settled herself right behind her husband kind of awkwardly because of the small seat and not too sure as to where to situate her legs.

"Alright Dad, just hold onto me, and Mom you hold onto Dad I'll be sure not to go too fast for the both of you." Stormflare ensured they were in a good spot for her to start and she gradually started picking up speed. She kept it at a comfortable pace making sure neither of her parents objected to it, although her dad was a little frazzled by just being on a motorcycle something of which he had always been against something about grizzly accidents.

In no time at all they were at the barracks, the buildings were all single story structures divided by roads with a dining facility in the middle of them. The families had been given one of the barracks as temporary housing while Jasper was being rebuilt and their houses were under construction, a large number of people in Jasper were unaffected by the attack so some were able to move back earlier than others, but with all the families on base having been affected by the abductions their houses and some businesses were demolished in the Decepticon search. Fowler had assured them that the government was doing its best to repair the damage, but he also said there was only so much they could actually do.

So for the time being the Winter's family was staying in barracks C room 12 which fortunately had a window outside that allowed Stormflare and her parents to continue speaking while her mother sat in the air conditioned room.

"I'm sorry for making you drive us back over here, I don't know what happened." Olivia apologized to her smiling daughter.

"Oh don't worry about it if anything it was kinda fun and that stuff happens, you were just told some pretty stressful information and it's hot enough that it's starting to make me feel uncomfortable and I'm made of metal now." Stormflare shrugged then propped her arms behind her as she sat crossed legged in front of the window. "I can't exactly imagine it's been good but how have you been since I was taken."

Her dad's more cheery demeanor soured a bit and her mom frowned. "It was… it wasn't good for the first couple of weeks." Daniel started, a pained look came over his features, and Stormflare brought a digit through the window and rested it slightly on his shoulder as a reassuring gesture. "Uh yeah, um I thought I saw you get taken, we had been told there had been reports of a chemical weapon in the area so I had rushed home to try and get you."

Mr. Winters choked up a bit and sat down in the chair he had brought to the window. "The house was on fire, and I thought I saw you for a moment but it might have been just the haze and smoke getting to me. But I know for a fact I saw something, whatever it was it was tall and black with a uh a red visor but it was gone just as quickly as I noticed it."

"I think that might have been the one that grabbed me, I don't really know I kinda passed out a little after I was grabbed." Stormflare rubbed her arm a little in apprehension not sure how much she really wanted her parents to know. "I was actually terrified through while we were taken and Valorous literally had to shake some sense into me so we could escape." She laughed a little uneasily as she remembered her brief time aboard the Nemesis.

"Valorous? Sounds a bit pretentious to me." Olivia rolled her eyes at the name. "You told us you got to pick your own names, what did he do that he thought he deserved to be called that."

Stormflare knew her mother was a person who was fairly cynical person sometimes, but this instance just agitated the Autobot in training. "Not all of us chose our names, Codebreaker and Soundshock didn't and neither did Valorous Optimus stepped in actually and Suggested Valorous after he rescued us from the Decepticons." Stormflare shuttered her optics realizing she was starting to raise her voice and so took a moment to calm down before speaking again.

Stormflare took her time in explaining their escape from the Con warship, and later fight in the abandoned energon mine, the entire time her parents listened to her with rapt attention. She later shifted to stories about her current life in the Autobot base all of them laughing or wincing when she told them about a particularly funny or painful moment.

-TFP-TFP-TFP-

It was only when the sky had begun getting darker had they realized how long they had been staying the military base. A good portion of the bots had decided to get back to base earlier in the day having duties that needed attending, so only Arcee and Optimus remained at the military base with the reformatted humans letting them talk with their families for longer.

"Hey Valorous! Dad gave me an idea, you're big enough so you could like totally throw me in the air or at the cons when we get into a fight do you wanna try it?" Although Soundshock seemed to be bouncing ideas off her father about how she could 'kick con afts' in her own words.

"Maybe when were in the middle of the desert, but there's a lot of buildings and roads around here to break." Jack replied to her simply, for the twentieth time.

"Break? I've been running all around this place and the road hasn't broke, are you calling me fat?"

"Says the multi-ton robot girl, and how does that even have any correlation."

"Says the bigger multi-ton robot boy, and it has correlation because I said so."

"Do you even know what correlation means?"

"Oh so now your calling me stupid?"

"What!?"

Mender and Arcee simply watched from the side and laughed as the two started bickering like siblings. "For two friends they sure do argue like their related, if I didn't know better I would have thought they were siblings." Mender laughed as Soundshock implied that Valorous had insulted her again, outside of the argument it was easy to see that she was just messing with the older teen.

"Oh tell me about it, they'll pretty much drop everything for Codebreaker," Arcee commented remembering multiple times such things occurred. "Or each other really, I've seen them drop everything if one of them is looking down."

"We do all really act a bit like a family though don't we?" Mender pointed out, "I mean I kinda thought of Bulkhead being the caring older brother for the kids, Wheeljack's the crazy or cool uncle I guess while Ratchet's the crotchety but secretly caring grandpa or something, but don't tell him I said that." Both femme's shared a laugh at the mental image of Ratchet doing stereotypical old person things.

"Bumblebee is definitely the younger brother that everyone loves, well younger in terms of Valorous and Soundshock he definitely seems older than Codebreaker sometimes." Arcee hummed in agreement, at mender's assessment of the yellow scout. "Cliffjumper is that favorite cousin that people all like having around, and Optimus is the dad everyone looks up to."

"And you're the helicopter mom literally and figuratively," Arcee pointed out with a bit of a laugh. "Not meaning it in a bad way, just saying I swear all medics have it hardcoded into them. Well what about me you mentioned everyone else, and I don't think we've really gotten to know the others well enough yet to guess."

"You? Well I'm not really sure what you would be to Codebreaker and Soundshock, I don't see you all interact very often probably the responsible older sister, yeah that sounds right." Mender hummed in thought for a moment about how she wanted to approach this next subject though.

"So I'm an older sister to Codebreaker and Soundshock but something else to Valorous?" Arcee questioned not sure what the reformatted nurse was getting at.

"Yes, you spend most of your time with him, or you did at least going on long drives, the occasional patrol, now you both train together, and don't think I don't see you giving each other those lovey-dovey optics all the time," it was with a start that Arcee's energon started going cold. "I swear you both get lost in each other's optics so often so no I don't think that comparing the both of you to siblings is appropriate, more like boyfriend and girlfriend actually."

Arcee for her part wasn't really sure what to say, speaking to Cliffjumper about her crush was one thing, but talking to the mother of said crush about the topic was something she wasn't prepared to deal with in the slightest.

"Has no one else really not made the connection? I'd have thought maybe Optimus or Ratchet would have noticed." Arcee expecting a more angered expression or maybe even disgusted was surprised that Mender was simply as calm as while they we talking earlier.

"No, Cliff noticed a while ago but he hadn't brought it up since."

Mender had figured that bringing this up with Arcee would probably be a bit of a shock for the blue femme but to this extent that she was a bit quiet and slightly panicked wasn't something she was expecting. Both of the sat in silence and observed one another, Arcee had thoughts running through her processor at a mile a minute while Mender simply observed trying to figure out why Arcee seemed… scared for lack of a better word.

"Are you going to tell him?"

Mender still confused thought it over for a second before coming to a decision. "Considering he hasn't figured it out for himself yet, no I won't but I wouldn't tell him either if you hadn't wanted me to."

Arcee's postured eased up slightly and her expression became relieved, Mender still couldn't think of any possible reason for the femme to be this tense. "Thank you, I… I don't know what to do."

Mender rested a servo on Arcee's shoulder jolting her in surprise from the contact. "Try not to worry about it, my son cares a great deal for you and you him and can see but just try and not get blinded by your affection with one another that you don't see what could be, or be too scared to act on it."

"I know it's just… what if he…" Arcee brought both her servos up to her neck cables to try and ease the tension there as if that would help her get the words out.

"If he what? Rejects you? Arcee have you been listening to me this whole time, my son wouldn't dare and if he did I'd borrow one of Ratchet's wrenches." Mender slung her arm over Arcee's shoulders in a hug as everything clicked for why Arcee, the brave femme of the Autobots was so scared over a crush. Simply it was rejection and losing another partner. "Valorous never went into details out of respect for you but he told me about you losing multiple partners, and also about how you lashed out at him when you first started out as partners."

Arcee winced at the mention of that event, she wasn't in a good place mentally at the time, and if she was being honest with herself wouldn't be for a long while after that. And of course it was only later that she learned that Valorous knew loss very well. "I don't think I ever even properly apologized for that, I was so absorbed in my grief that I could barely think past the fight."

"I know, I was the same in a way. I buried myself in work, I worked my self so hard that my coworkers had to get my boss to force me to go home and when I got home I crashed and the cycle continued." Mender held Arcee a little tighter and her optics took a far off look to them as she stared out at noting in particular. "Valorous despite being little at the time, understood I think to some degree that is dad wasn't coming back and so took it upon himself to try and do as much at home as he could to try to fill the void that was left and that I was creating."

Arcee listened quietly as Mender told her about the harder times in her and Valorous life. They had originally lived in Oregon, but opted to move south to get away from painful memories a month after Mr. Darby's death, how Valorous took it hard and how difficult it was to make friends but somehow managed to befriend Hardcharger for a time before they drifted apart. Valorous grew up to be a responsible young man with one parent dead and another that was there as much as she could but times were difficult. All up until when Mender had guessed he met the bots for the first time, and how Jack had begun to brighten up more, and seemed to be happy with his 'Science Fiction Club.'

By the time Mender had finished venting, the sky was dark and alit with stars and the moon, and the others were all beginning to say farewell to their families. "Despite how dangerous it is and my reservations for this entire situation I've never seen Valorous this happy since before his father passed away, and even then I've only seen him at his happiest when he's with you."

Arcee curled up into herself a bit resting her chin on her knees watching as Valorous interacted with Codebreaker as he said goodbye to his family. "After all that and how I treated him and the danger he's put himself in and he still stuck around… why?"

"Because Arcee, he cares for you, whether or not either of you want to act on these feelings is up to you and please remember he would do just about anything for you, and I doubt he would even think about abandoning you. And if you ever need someone to talk to besides him you can come and find me." Mender squeezed Arcee a little tighter for a second before letting the blue scout go and standing up, dusting off her armor from any stray bits of tarmac. "Now come on we wouldn't want them to leave without us would we?" Arcee so caught up in her thoughts hadn't noticed the ground bridge open nodded in agreement and stood up herself and made her way to the portal half in a daze with the amount of information going through her processor.

-TFP-TFP-TFP-

Unseen by all blending in with the darkness of the night, their armored wings reflecting the moonlight, Laserbeak watched as all of the reformatted humans entered the swirling vortex and disappeared recording everything.

With no further reason to observe the area, the avian minicon gained altitude and sped up no longer needing to keep a stealth recon flight pattern. Feeling the pull of its bond between it and it's master Laserbeak began their return flight to the Nemesis knowing the spymaster would be proud of the information they had gathered.

-TFP-TFP-TFP-

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, we've got Mr. Sumdac, we've got the Witwicky's, we also had Sierra's parents and some happy bits between Arcee and June, and a bit of some seriousness. And then someone also mentioned I don't have very many interactions with the cons so I've added a bit of a peak at what's to come.

Also If I've made any mistakes in regards with the information with the Darby's moving from Oregon while Jack was younger please inform me I'm still trying to work out my Timeline and I've not had time to write it out which among other things I should probably do.

Anyway I hope everyone's doing alright make sure to take care of yourselves have a good day/night and stay frosty my friends.