"I'm gaining strength, trying to learn to pull my own weight. But I'm gaining pounds at the precipice of Too Late (Just Wait)."

BNL

"Hey man, we look at each other with ample eyes, so why not some time do discover what's behind your eyes? I've got so many questions that I want to ask you. I am so tired of mirrors...And there's a shadow in the sky, and it looks like rain, and s--- is gonna fly, once again."

Nelly Furtado

Skyfire drew an equation on the databoard. Lyra stared. She knew she had to compute this. Her metal brow furrowed as she tried to balance the equation. Did it lose any ions due to thermal reaction? Was there smoke? She frowned deeper.

"I can't do this." She wanted to yell, but she had learned that that was the easiest way to tick off everyone in the room. She discovered that it was unspoken Autobot scientist precept to NEVER raise your voice. It was illogical. It accomplished nothing. It had you sent to the commissary with all of the accumulated energon mugs as punishment. "Skyfire, I have no idea where you got that."

"This is why I have requested aid." Skyfire checked his chronometer. Five more minutes. "He'll be here soon. Until then, could you..?"

Lyra smiled. "I'll be right back. Percy? Graps? Energy?"

"Yes, please." Although Grapple was an architect, he had volunteered to help the scientists until the antidote was discovered. He was the second-biggest energon fiend, close to Perceptor. Lyra returned in ten minutes, hands full. She too, was never stopped. Odd. There was another mug stored in subspace for Starscream. When she came in she saw the small human known as Spike standing on a large stool, writing on the databoard something from a book. Lyra dispensed the beverages and stood by the human, speechless. Her internal force still mistrusted him.

Spike looked up. "Hey," he greeted. "I had an old chemistry book from my college days. I thought you might be interested."

Taught by a human. Starscream would have a laugh at this. Lyra felt like chuckling herself. She turned to see her mentors all sitting on a table, as though to witness this embarrassing lecture. Skyfire nodded encouragingly. Lyra turned back to Spike to hear him begin at the very beginning, informing her that this was a very good place to start. If Lyra had not had all those years of handling subordinates, she might have been offended. On a level, she was. She knew better, but she was. Where did this easily agitated facet come from, anyway? It wasn't always there.

"Spike," she interrupted. "If I may, isn't there a fourth element? Plasma?"

"Yes," he answered confidently. "It's not explored on this basic a level of chemistry, though."

"Oh." Now Lyra was REALLY embarrassed. The audience behind her didn't help. She was still unaccustomed to having her peers watch so closely. Lyra glanced behind her to see that they had slipped away. Once they heard her asking questions and treating Spike as a tutor, their main concern, there was no other reason to observe. They were gone. Good. Lyra concentrated on what Spike was saying.

Skyfire again confronted his enemy. 'The likeness is uncanny.'

'That is not the reason she is whom I seek,' the Decepticon retorted. 'Her resemblance to our former mentor is subjective. I do not see it.'

Skyfire knew better than to argue with Starscream over trivialities such as whether or not Skyfire's creator lived in this small Autobot or not. 'Are you still asking me to rejoin you?'

This was met with a contemptuous laugh. 'You have made your decision already. Why reinvent the cosine wave? Forget that should you accompany me this stupid war will be over for us. Ignore that being my second-in-command will return you to the air, where you belong. Merely ask yourself this: at what point in time will my absence from your life drive you to insanity?'

Skyfire started in surprise. Starscream was right. They were fused together in a thought pattern that already haunted him. Could he survive another eon without his best friend, especially when one still refused to forgive and the other demanded more than reconciliation? Skyfire doubted it.

'Another impasse,' Starscream claimed, leaning back against the wall.

'There will come a time when you will receive my answer, which will most likely be NO, until then...I must continue to watch over your protege.'

Starscream's condescending thoughts turned to excitement. 'She is doing well, then?'

'Why not? Most of your life force is hers. She learns well.' Skyfire saw the Seeker smile.

'Excellent.'

After eight hours of teaching, the human was exhausted. They had gone through highlights of his textbook, and Lyra had homework, but first she wanted to see Mirage. She pictured him sitting around with Mercuria and company, causing her to hurry out of the lab to find him. As she passed by the detention center she felt a need to look in. Skyfire was there with Starscream, each having a staring contest of some kind. She felt a great deal of rage.

There was no reason for this anger. How dare they see each other behind her back? Traitors! It consumed her so much she did not see what was in front of her until she nearly collided with a surly Sunstreaker. He told her to watch it. She shout at him to get out of her way. Not interested in a fight that would get him in trouble when Nova was so close to uncovering the truth, he settled on shoving her out of his path. She was running after him, fluctuating in and out of visibility when Skyfire picked her up and carried her off from the irate golden warrior before she placed a "Shoot me" sign on his back.

"He asked for it!" she screamed.

"You need a time-out!" He put her on a stool and stared at her, face to face. The gentle mech had a firm expression of discipline that irritated her.

"I need nothing of the sort! All I want to do is see my brother, you overgrown carrier pigeon!"

Skyfire started at this. Starscream had just called him that during their mental transference. She couldn't hear it, so how could she have thought it? "He's out on call with Mercuria and Cliffjumper."

"What? How can he be missing so often? Are there powers working against me?"

"No, 'Red Alert'. No one is trying to harm you. Calm down."

Lyra glared. She really resented his interference. Perhaps he should get a taste of his own coolant. "What were you doing with Starscream?"

"Nothing." The serious mech had a deeper scowl than usual.

Lyra decided it was time to change the subject by asking about her brother's mission. Apparently Skyfire had been in the room when this had all occurred.

"After Teletraan was fixed we found a distress call from Dr. Fujiyama, the scientist who built the robot ninja Nightbird." He proceeded to tell her the story, complete with Starscream's involvement.

"Now he is a professor at a different university. Kettering. It's in Michigan. That's not too far from here, it's still on the continent. He'll return soon." Skyfire was relieved she was off the subject of Starscream. Skyfire's former cohort had asked for forgiveness, saying he was sorry he had shot him, and wanted him to return to the Decepticons with a more exalted position. Skyfire swallowed his first reaction to refuse and instead claimed he wanted time to think about this. Lyra seemed more eager to discuss Mirage. She had forgotten the fight with Sunstreaker too, which was a good idea. That was not a mech to mess with.

Mirage silently reviewed the file he had on Flint, Michigan. A city abandoned by everything, from the automotive industry to the middle class to even those who built it. Six times the national murder rate, three times the nation's rates of rape, assault and burglary, this is not a city for the timid. A twelve percent crime rate and a Michael Moore movie theme in its credits, this blight is the poster child for the danger of having only one industry rule your town. The natives of Detroit fear this crime-ridden hell on earth. Yet inside this crater, in the southwest corner, is one of the toughest engineering schools in the country.

Kettering University's five-building campus clusters together like Napoleon's troops on defense. A co-opt engineering college, it boasts the 11-week course schedule of twenty credits that alternates with 12 weeks of paid co-opt with the largest Automobile manufacturers in the country. Graduates are almost guaranteed a job with the Big 3, or they may move on to Ivy League graduate work. Six percent become CEO's. Here, in this urban graveyard of southeast Michigan, Dr. Fujiyama hid his family after the Nightbird debacle.

Mirage tore through I-75 as fast as the pothole-marked highway would allow him. Cliffjumper already broke his axle on one nasty hole by Hazel Park. Mercuria kept conversation going by asking as many questions as she could about the file. The clouds around them darkened the farther north they went, and cold rain forced them to slow down.

It was almost evening when they arrived. There were no security guards in sight, no checkpoints, and no gates. Hadn't an important plaque commemorating the first unionized sit-down strike been stolen a mere fifty meters from this place? Weren't armed robberies committed in broad daylight? Where was security?

"Shut up," said Cliffjumper, tired of Mirage's monologue. "Let's find the doctor. Ask those kids over there."

Several young men were leaving the Recreational Center, one with aSigma Chifraternity sweatshirt on. As Mirage and company transformed he heard a few of them whistle.

"Hey! Autobots!"

"I didn't know you had girls."

"What's under the hood?"

"Bagel!"

"Hello," Mercuria smoothly greeted them. She was a brilliant negotiator with an amazing charisma that got her noticed. Nothing flattered Mirage more than her attentions. She was so bewitching. "Perhaps you could help us. We are looking for a Dr. Fujiyama."

The young men exchanged glances. "He teaches Dynamic Systems," explained the one called Bagel. "It's Saturday, so my guess would be he's at home. He'll be back here on Monday." The bell tower sounded, causing Cliffjumper to leap, startled. He smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand.

"Saturday! Why didn't I think of that? Teletraan's been offline for a few days! That message was old!"

"That is not a setback. He lives a few towns over, in Clarkston. We can go see him there, since we have his address," Mirage reminded him. These simple missions were much nicer than battles. He was glad Optimus gave him mundane patrol assignments instead of fighting. Cliffjumper hated them. He wasn't too fond of Mirage either. This mission had both police work and potential fighting, so they were paired up. Mercuria was sent as the intermediary.

"Thanks, guys," Mercuria said, smiling sweetly. She transformed, and raced onto Chevrolet Street towards the highway. Mirage hurried to catch up, noting that downtown could be seen through the razed concrete monolith that once was Buick City, now acres of flattened cement. The Citizen's Bank weather ball was blinking blue, meaning it was going to get colder, and continue to precipitate. Cliffjumper asked how he knew.

"Didn't you read the file?" He obviously hadn't heard a word Mirage said on the way up.

"No. That's geek stuff."

"Never mind, then." Obviously Cliffjumper was here merely to annoy him.

Dr. Fujiyama had a beautiful house in an expanding town south of Flint. Cliffjumper, the only bot small enough to knock on the door, greeted the teenage girl who answered it. She screamed and ran inside. This was not the response of someone who regarded them as friends.

"Wait! We're here to help! What happened?"

"I'm calling the police!" she screamed from deep within.

"Good! Maybe they'll calm her down." Cliffjumper appealed to Mercuria. "It's all you."

The silver femme looked into the second-floor window. "My name is Mercuria. We're here at your father's request."

"You TOOK my father, you evil robots!" shrieked the window.

Cliffjumper turned to Mirage as flecks of sleet sparsely assaulted them. "You'd better radio Optimus. We're too late."

Megatron turned away from the computer in their temporary base. "As you have observed Doctor, I have Laserbeak ready to tear your daughter to pieces the moment the Autobots leave. Perhaps you should reconsider your obdurate refusal to satisfy my inquiries."

From his spot on the table Dr. Fujiyama glared wrathfully. "You monster! Leave her alone."

Megatron lowered his face to be almost even with the scientist's. "I grow tired of asking, doctor. One last time: where is she?" Dr. Fujiyama remained silent. Megatron straightened up and turned around. The Autobots had vacated the premises. "Very well. Laserbeak!"

"Wait!" He had no intention of allowing the release of Nightbird, but Megatron gave him no choice. "I'll tell you."

"Excellent." Starscream wanted a distraction. This would do nicely. It would also teach him to not turn his radio off.